This course is about understanding what your client is trying to do when they call you, and the backdrop against which they will make all their legal decisions. Business clients call lawyers when the law intersects with their business. Understanding the opposing sides business goals is equally as critical to delivering the best legal advice. Many lawyers who dont think of themselves as corporate lawyers are in the same position, for example: litigators addressing business activities of clients, health care lawyers for nonprofit hospitals (which are themselves businesses), and trust and estates lawyers when a family business is involved.
This course will use law- and business-school materials to learn how to understand your clients goals. This will include examination of a businesss market, competition, strategic decision making, growth by business acquisition, reading a clients financial statements and valuation as a non-expert, and the business of law firms (solo practitioner to large firms). We will investigate how specific legal specializations, such as antitrust and intellectual property fit into business strategy.
Course grading will be based on written materials analyzing real and hypothetical business situations, a class presentation in groups, and a final exam. This course is designed for those with no prior understanding of how businesses work. Those with an undergraduate degree, or minor, in business or economics, an MBA, or in a joint MBA program may not take this course.
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