Business Associations

The topic of this podcast is Tortious Interference - when one of the parties to a contract claims that a third party wrongfully interfered with the contract by inducing the other party to breach. The rule for when tortious interference arises after a contract can be found in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 766. Tortious interference can also arise before the contract is formed, when the third party is claimed to have interfered with the formation of a contract. The podcast includes a discussion of defenses to a claim of tortious interference, and examines the fine line between unlawful and permissible interference per Restatement (Second) of Torts § 767. The cases Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil Co. and Phillips v. MEA are covered, as is the movie The Insider which was based on a real tortious interference case. 

In this podcast, Professor Cohen discusses the formation of a partnership and how to master related sections of the Uniform Partnership Act (UPA) and the Revised Uniform Partnership Act (RUPA). Professor Cohen offers practical tips for students to incorporate in their study plan to help them learn this material.

This is the first in a series of three lessons on limited liability companies. It provides a comparative overview of unincorporated entities such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited liability companies (LLCs), and incorporated entities including S and C corporations.

This lesson introduces the student to the doctrine and processes involved in interpreting state and federal statutes. Statutes are a critical part of every substantive area of the law, so this is important background for every student, legal professional, lawyer and judge.

This lesson is the FINAL lesson in a FIVE part series dealing with the ways a corporation is financed, that is, the ways in which a company raises money to pay for its ongoing operations. BEFORE beginning this lesson, you should have completed ALL of the previous lessons and have mastered the concepts introduced in each of the previous lessons. This lesson builds on those earlier lessons. The FIRST lesson in the series is called Types of Securities, Corp27.

This is the third part of five related lessons concerning the issuance of securities by a corporation.

This is the fourth part of five related lessons concerning the issuance of securities by a corporation. This lesson deals with the amount of consideration used to pay for equity securities.

This lesson integrates agency law and partnership law to develop an understanding of the authority partners possess to bind the partnership. The lesson explores the actual and apparent authority of partners and the possibility of inherent agency power in the partner context.

This lesson teaches the Capital Asset Pricing Model. It begins by discussing risk and its control by diversification, and how betas measure the risk of diversified portfolios.

The lesson is designed to guide the student through the CAPM in detail as part of a Corporate Finance or Mergers & Acquisitions course. In courses that do not cover the CAPM in detail, such as Business Association courses or Securities Regulation, this lesson can be used as further study or for skimming.

This is a lesson that introduces the basics of valuation. The lesson teaches about moving money through time using rates of interest or discount, and the use of rates and of price/earnings ratios to value businesses.

The lesson does not assume any economic knowledge. If you already know the basics of valuation, then you should switch to the lesson on the Capital Asset Pricing Model.

Under corporate law, shareholders dissatisfied with certain extraordinary transactions, such as corporate mergers, may dissent from those transactions and require the corporation to purchase the dissenters' shares for their fair value. This lesson discusses those rights, known as dissenter's or appraisal rights. The lesson covers both Delaware law and the Model Business Corporation Act and discusses what appraisal rights are, when those rights are available to shareholders, and the procedures for enforcing appraisal rights. It does not get into the difficult questions involved in actually valuing corporate shares, and it does not discuss procedural issues that arise in appraisal litigation.

This lesson provides both a theoretical and practical overview of the piercing the corporate veil doctrine and related theories for imposing the obligations of corporations on other legal actors such as shareholders or related corporate entities.

This is the first of a series of lessons dealing with issues concerning how a corporation raises the money it needs to operate its business. This lesson focuses on the types of securities a corporation may issue (debt and equity) and the reasons it may choose one or the other. The lesson also introduces students to the difference between common and preferred shares and identifies differences in the approaches of Delaware and of the Model Business Corporation Act. After completing the lesson, the student should know: 1. What a corporate security is; 2.

This lesson introduces the student to the management and financial rights of partners of an ongoing partnership. Other lessons cover the information and indemnification rights of partners and the rights of partners during the process of dissolving a partnership. Before starting this lesson, students should have completed the basic lessons on partnership formation.

This lesson provides an introduction to the doctrine of ratification. The lesson will cover what ratification is, why the doctrine developed, what acts can be ratified, who can ratify, how ratification occurs, and what are the legal effects of ratification. The lesson will also introduce you (or reintroduce you) to the related doctrine of adoption.

This lesson examines the creation of the employer/employee relationship (formerly master/servant relationship) in agency law and contrasts that relationship with the status of independent contractor. The lesson provides an opportunity to think about why the distinction is important and how to tell whether a given relationship rises to the level of being an employer/employee relationship or is merely an independent contractor relationship.

This lesson introduces the student to agency relationships and explores the following questions: Why are agency relationships formed? Who are the parties to an agency relationship? What elements are required to form an agency relationship? and What are the consequences of forming an agency relationship?

This lesson will familiarize students with the "Revlon" and "Blasius" doctrines, standards of judicial review under Delaware law. The Revlon doctrine applies to board actions taken when a change of control or sale of the corporation is inevitable. The Blasius doctrine applies when a board has acted with the primary purpose of interfering with a shareholder vote.

This lesson is a brief introduction to the four major types of corporate acquisitions: mergers, compulsory share exchanges, sales of assets, and tender offers. It includes descriptions of different types of mergers: stock-for-stock mergers, cashout mergers, and triangular mergers.

This lesson tries to explain Coasean irrelevance (which is often known as the "Coase Theorem").

This lesson provides an overview of the historical significance of the ultra vires doctrine, its subsequent decline in importance, and its modern status.

This lesson focuses on basic concepts and terminology and addresses issues contained in what are called the legal capital provisions of corporate codes. You will encounter equity capitalization, par value, capital, capital surplus and earned surplus accounts in a balance sheet.

This lesson will provide students with an introduction to the federal regulation of proxy solicitation.

This lesson is a comprehensive discussion of shareholder agreements under section 7.32 of the Revised Model Business Corporation Act (RMBCA).