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Business Organizations Law in Focus, Second Edition provides a thorough introduction to the key attributes, advantages, and disadvantages of every form of for-profit business organization in the United States, including: partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations. The practice-oriented approach of the Focus Casebook Series elucidates the legal and practical aspects of business organizations through real-world scenarios that provide numerous opportunities for students to apply theory to practice and solidify their understanding of key concepts. Clear exposition and Case Previews support independent learning and focus case analysis.

New to the Second Edition:

• Significantly more editing of cases with an eye towards making case excerpts shorter and more accessible to students.
• Expanded coverage of LLCs in Chapter 12, including a newly added case and related exercises addressing the primacy of the operating agreement in LLC governance and 2019 case and associated exercises highlighting LCC dissolution standards.
• Newly-added cases and exercises in Chapter 9 highlighting the continued evolution of Delaware’s Caremark corporate monitoring and oversight doctrine, including references to the Delaware Supreme Court’s recent decision in Marchand v. Barhill, 212 A.3d 805, 809 (Del. 2019) reversing the dismissal of Caremark claims against an ice cream manufacturer over allegedly persistent food safety issues, and the Chancery Court’s decision in Clovis Oncology, Inc. Derivative Litig., C.A. No. 2017-0222-JRS, 2019 WL 4850188 (OCT. 1, 2019) denying a motion to dismiss Caremark claims involving allegedly “serial non-compliance” with FDA protocols and regulations having to do with drug approval.
• An additional case in Chapter 10 that asks whether the “disrespectful and unfairly disproportionate treatment of a female shareholder by the male majority in a closely held corporation constitutes corporate oppression” pursuant to New York Business Corporation Law § 1104-a (a)(1).
• A new case in Chapter 10 in which shareholders of AmerisourceBergen—one of the world’s leading wholesale distributors of opioid painkillers—sought to exercise their inspection rights under DGCL § 200 to investigate whether the firm had engaged in wrongdoing in connection with the distribution of opioids.
• Additional and expanded references to Model Business Corporation Act (MBCA) standards across Chapters 8, 9, and 10, including expanded references to MBCA standards concerning director conflicting interest transactions, the corporate opportunity doctrine, and the MBCA’s universal demand rule for derivative actions.
• A new case in Chapter 3 addressing duties of loyalty and candor in the partnership context that invokes the Meinhard v. Salmon standard in a manner that is more accessible to students.
• Updated coverage of the proxy system and proxy regulation, securities offering rules and regs, and developments in insider trading law.
• New cases and “spotlight” sections that address a variety of timely issues, including “unicorns” (start-up businesses with a valuation of at least $1 billion), claims involving opioid manufacturers, and corporate governance matters involving #MeToo claims.

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Features that engage students in applying theory to practice, such as Real-Life Applications, Application Exercises, and Applying the Concepts.
• Experiential exercises on drafting documents and preparing appropriate filings.
• An overview in Chapter One of the various forms of business organization and their key attributes, advantages, and disadvantages.
• An emphasis on contemporary principal cases and issues that resonate with today’s students and fuel class discussion.
• Clear exposition of legal principles means students can absorb assigned reading on their own, and professors don’t have to explain it from the lectern in class.
• Attention to attorney ethical issue and rules that commonly arise in the representation of business entities.