Third Group Project – Corporate Counsel
BUSN. 326 – Summer 2016
In this exercise, groups of 3-4 students will function as strategic business teams to write a plan for their corporate management, recommending the creation of a position of Corporate Counsel, giving a job description, and discussing some of the issues that the counsel might tackle.
Background
We have covered a wide range of legal topics affecting business. The table of contents in Morgan’s textbook, Business Law (5th ed.), shows the diversity of laws that govern setting up and making a business run smoothly. Please go to FoxTALE and read the posted article, which tells the story of a general counsel of an amusement park company with widespread holdings. It illustrates the incredible variety of duties and responsibilities that corporate counsel must address.
Most large businesses will have at least one corporate counsel (an in-house lawyer), if not an entire legal division. The attorneys address legal claims after the problem occurred, and also can become very engaged in plan that will avoid legal problems in the future. Corporate counsel must balance two competing interests: Helping the company reach its goals vs. helping the company minimize risk.
For this exercise, assume that you are on an executive team for a manufacturing firm in the United States, and that your business makes products that are made, stored in warehouses, and then advertise and shipped all over the United States and into several other countries. Your company has now grown to the point where you need a new position for your executive suite: Corporate Counsel.
Prompt
Each team must write a 4-page long business plan that includes the following:
• The reasons why you need a corporate counsel;
• The job description for a corporate counsel; and
• Three recurring issues that a manufacturing firm might face that the corporate counsel could address – with a paragraph-long discussion of each issue and what the counsel might do.
You will be graded on the quality of your reasoning, your understanding of the issues, and how feasible your advice is. This will require creativity on your part.
Resources
There are many resources out there for corporate counsel. Feel free to use (or not use) these resources, but be sure to include the resources you use in a bibliography at the end of the paper.
Corporate Counsel website http://www.corpcounsel.com
The Corporate Counsel Net https://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/home/
Association of Corporate Counsel http://www.acc.com
Grading and Format
All written assignments will be graded not only on content but also for style, presentation, organization, and lack of basic writing errors. At least 10% of assignment grades will be based upon basic writing proficiency (spelling, grammar, paragraph structure, etc.), and another 10% will be based upon the organization, clarity and flow of the argument.
All written assignments must be typed and meet the following standards:
• One-inch margins on all four sides;
• Double-spaced type, with paragraph breaks clearly marked; and
• Page numbers on all but the first page