FIRST ASSIGNMENT

Business Planning

Spring  2013

1.         Purchase and bring to class the text, F. Gevurtz, Business Planning (4^th ed. 2008).

2.         Register for our course on TWEN.  I will use TWEN to distribute materials to the class (including the syllabus and semester reading assignments) and to communicate with you during the semester.  So be sure to register with an email address you regularly monitor.  We will also be using various other functions TWEN provides, such as the discussion board and the drop box.

3.         Reading assignment:  You should approach the reading assignments for this class from the perspective of an attorney in a business practice (e.g., identifying future implications of alternative approaches that could be taken today and actively seeking alternative approaches that meet relevant legal requirements while balancing potential legal risks against a hierarchy of the client’s objectives). 

N.B.: One of the assigned readings is on reserve at the library.  Be sure to schedule sufficient time to read it before our first class.  Obviously not everyone will be able to read it on Monday before our class starts!

      Lawyer's role in planning

• Gevurtz, pp. 1-18 (carry-over paragraph only) 

      Planning and drafting

• “[L]anguage … is a part of the process of thinking.  Our ideas are clarified in the very attempt to express them.”  See infra Dickerson p. 14 n. 1 (quoting Littleton, The Importance of effective Legal Writing in Law Practice, 9 Student Law. 6 (1963).


• “[A]s a planner, the draftsman is also a sculptor of ideas, an engineer, and an architect.”  See infra Dickerson p. 354.


• Reed Dickerson, The Fundamentals of Legal Drafting (3d ed. 1986) §§ 4.1-4.4, on reserve in library

      Ethics and the business attorney

• Gevurtz, pp. 26-52

      Course structure

• The syllabus, posted on TWEN

4.         Written homework:  Not later than noon on Monday, Jan. 28, email me the following information:

• In what state or states do you intend, expect or hope to practice on graduation from ONU?  Specify at least one state (e.g., the state in which you intend to sit for the bar).


• List those of the following courses you have completed:  Bus. Orgs. 2, Taxation of Corporations, Taxation of Partnerships, bankruptcy (specify which), Corporate Finance, Intellectual Property, Patent Law, Securities Regulation and Legal Profession.


• Separately list any of the above courses which you are taking concurrently with this course.

5.         Read carefully through the syllabus and be prepared to answer and ask questions about it in the first class.  You should also feel free to ask any question or discuss any aspect of the syllabus on the TWEN discussion board for our class, even before our first class.  N.B.:  If the syllabus is not posted on TWEN as early as this assignment is made available, students who are registered for the course on TWEN will get an email when the syllabus goes up.

ANY QUESTIONS BEFORE CLASSES START?

                                                                                                Feel free to contact me at n-neslund@onu.edu.