Business Organizations (Aspen Casebook)

Business Organizations, Second Edition is a pedagogically rich book that recaptures student engagement in the course without sacrificing basic rigor. The traditional coverage of most books in the field is retained, but modernized in reflecting the importance of unincorporated entities and small business counseling problems. Transaction-oriented problems put the student in the practice role of advising a variety of businesses. An expository approach provides clear context for cases. Features include flowcharts, connections boxes, self-testing exercises, an interspersed series of exercises on ethics for business lawyers, a glossary of terms, and sidebars on numerical concepts and skills. Through the use of side-bar explanations or otherwise, the chapters or major sections of chapters in the book stand alone, facilitating teaching in almost any order. An online supplement includes a “business concepts for lawyers” module to be assigned as an instructor desires, as well as a variety of sample documents to show students the actual materials that lawyers work with every day.

New to the Second Edition:

• Major revisions to incorporate important statutory modifications:
  • Book-wide revisions to incorporate 2016 Model Business Corporations Act amendments
  • Book-wide revisions to incorporate amendments to the Revised Uniform Partnership Act and amendments to several other ALI model statutes for unincorporated entities, including the revisions made under the ALI’s “harmonization project”
  • Revisions to reflect significant changes in the exemptions from registration under the Securities Act of 1933
  • Updates to reflect the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act New cases, including Alexander v. FedEx and O’Connor v. Uber (dealing with the agency relationship of delivery companies and their drivers); Browning-Ferris Indus. (addressing the possibility of joint-employer status in situations involving temp agencies); and Salman v. U.S. (new decision of the Supreme Court having to do with insider trading)
• Newly written substantive materials, including an entirely new section on the “gig” economy, added to Ch. 4; and new material on the ability of shareholders to adopt bylaws affecting the management of business
• Shorter cases to bring down page length and respond to adopter requests Improved integration of the text and its online companion material

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Modularity—achieved by keeping chapters short and self-contained—so that the book can be adapted to professors’ different priorities
• Substantial material provided for free in an online supplement, to reduce overall student costs, including:
  • A set of complete edited codes to support all readings in the casebook; and
  • A module comprising a “business concepts for lawyers” guide, covering tax, accounting, financial and economic topics keyed directly to the book.
• Detailed, problem-focused treatment of unincorporated entity issues and special transactional problems in counseling small businesses
• Visual and pedagogical elements (including teaching and learning aids such as flow-charts and self-testing devices) that are designed to engage a generation of students and teachers accustomed to variety and visual appeal
• Special cross-referencing aids to emphasize connections among related topics
• An expository approach providing clear context for the traditional case material that also appears
• Easy-to-digest sidebar content intended to develop student numeracy strength in tax, accounting and other relevant concepts