Law 633:  Business Associations (Graduate Students)

Business Associations I is the foundational course in the corporate series. The course begins with an examination of the building block of firms (business associations): the agency relationship, in which one person acts on behalf of another and subject to the other's control.  This course will examine the law governing agency's internal relationships (the rights and obligations between the agent and the person on whose behalf the agent acts - the principal), as well as the law governing agency's external relationships (the rights and obligations between the agent or the principal and a third party with whom the agent interacted).  Next, the course will study the firm: relationships in which there are multiple "principals", or co-owners.  After a survey of types of firms (the corporation, partnership, LLC, etc.), we will again consider the firm's external relationships (including limited liability and veil piercing) and internal relationships (corporate governance). As we will see, the law for firms is based on that of agency relationships, but more elaborate and occasionally different because it must also address the increased complexity of having multiple co-owners.

 Sequence and Prerequisites: Business Associations I is the first course in the Corporate Law curriculum. It is a prerequisite for many of the other courses.