Last Updated: 11/27/2011
Towson University
Legal Environment of Business, LEGL 225.004
COURSE SYLLABUS Spring 2011
Instructor: Quincey R. Johnson, Esq., M.A.,
1. My Contact Information
Phone: 410-704-4866
Note: except during office hours, email probably reaches me sooner than a phone call to my office. If you want to talk outside of office hours, email me a phone number and a time to call you that same day or the next day.
Email:
Hours Reserved for Meeting with Students Monday and Wednesday 1:00 p.m-2:00 p.m.
Office: Stephens 301G . You can request an appointment by emailing me or speaking to me in class. I cannot promise to be able to accommodate every request, but I will try. Making an appointment is your best bet for seeing me.
2. General Description of the Course
Course Number: LEGL225.004
Course Title: Legal Environment of Business
Classroom: ST 204
Sources of law and our legal system, emphasis on court jurisdiction, procedure, tort and criminal law, contracts, sales, anti-trust law, and workers compensation and consumer, environmental and international law. Not open to those who successfully completed BULA 225.
3. General Purpose and Specific Topics
The course’s primary purpose is to introduce students to the foundation and basics of business law and its environment. In an increasingly complex business world and regulatory environment, business people need more than a passing acquaintance with the law and legal issues. Legal studies students study law with a grounding in business fundamentals -- including accounting, marketing, management-- to help them appreciate how legal issues affect business decision making. In addition, the legal studies program contributes to students’ critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills development.
· Define the sources of law and our legal system, emphasis on court jurisdiction, procedure and basic legal concepts in the business environment.
· Recognize the nature, operation and effect of the political, legal, regulatory, and court system as they apply to business
· Identify and discuss key law concepts as they affect the business environment, particularly tort, criminal, contracts, sales, antitrust, worker’s compensation, consumer, environmental and international laws.
· Identify potential legal problems in the business/marketing environment.
· Evaluate factual problem situations, be able to apply legal concepts, and analyze possible responses.
· Become familiar with alternative dispute resolution systems
4. Learning Outcomes
After successfully completing the course, students will be able to—
• Explain and apply basic legal fundamentals such as court structure and process, contract law, personal injury, and business regulation.
· Understand and explain the relationship between law and ethics
· Use the tools of critical thinking to understand law and legal problems.
• Understand the structure of judicial opinions and how they are used to create law.
· Read judicial opinions and identify the key legal issues.
· Understand how law affects the conduct of business operations.
· Analyze hypothetical situations, identify appropriate law, and apply legal concepts to solve legal and business problems.
· Find legal information using university and internet legal sources.
5. Required Textbooks and Software
Kubasek, Browne, Herron, et al., Dynamic Business Law for Legal 225, Primis.
ISBN-10-0-39-015088-6.
You are required to deliver documents in this course electronically as files in Microsoft Word 2003 or later. Thus, you must have ready, convenient access to Microsoft Word. Any Towson Student can purchase Microsoft Office software at a discount, from the University Union Bookstore at http://www.towson.edu/adminfinance/auxservices/universitystore/MicrosoftTowsonUniversityStudentSoftwareProgram.asp or from online vendors such as http://www.academicsuperstore.com/. Towson students may be able to obtain Microsoft products at an even deeper discount at https://elms08.e-academy.com/towson/.
6. Required Computer Technology Access and Knowledge
The course is delivered partially through the World Wide Web and Internet email. Students must have routine, ready access to computer technology and the requisite knowledge enabling them, at a minimum, to perform all of the following tasks efficiently:
• Send and receive email over the Internet and archive the messages for easy reference later; at a minimum, students must check their Towson email accounts at the start and the end of each week to see if there are messages relating to the course; they must keep copies of email from me or classmates related to the course (which they may need to prove that information was delivered, agreements made, or work submitted)
• Read material published on the World Wide Web
• Download and open PDF files, Word documents, and PowerPoint files from links on web pages
• Use Microsoft Word to produce well-formatted, easy-to-read documents fulfilling the requirements of written assignments; this includes the use of advance word-processing techniques such as paragraph styles, tables, automated page numbering, etc.
• Use Microsoft Excel to create simple tables of numerical data and, from those, to produce appropriate, effectively labeled and formatted charts.
• Read and, if necessary, print out my comments and tracked edits on documents returned in Word
• Use our social network (Ning.com) to conduct asynchronous class work
7. Required Time Commitment
Over the 16 weeks of the semester, most students in this course should assume that they will need 6 to 8 hours a week, on average, to complete the assigned work — including class time. The workload is lighter in the first few weeks but increases steadily as the semester progresses. There is no final exam in this course, but there is a class meeting scheduled during the final exam period. The formal report is due no later than that final exam meeting.
8. My Responsibilities as Instructor
• Establish the objectives, assignments, and schedule for the course.
• Share my knowledge and opinions about topics covered in the textbook and in additional assigned readings.
• Lead and moderate face to face and online synchronous and asynchronous discussions of assigned readings, encouraging students to express their opinions.
• Make evaluation criteria for high-stakes assignments clear to students in advance and return an adequately specific evaluation of the work they hand in.
• Maintain a regular schedule of office hours reserved for consultation with students and answer all email queries within 24 hours.
• Review and offer directive advice on all drafts.
• Return graded evaluations of assignments within a reasonable time and, in all cases.
9. Your Responsibilities as a Student
To earn a satisfactory grade in this course, all students are expected to
• Abide by the policies on attendance and tardiness.
• Participate actively and cooperatively in class discussions and group work.
• Post thoughtful, carefully written and edited responses to my prompts for every individual and group assignment.
• Hand in complete, carefully written and edited assignments on or before the deadlines for them.
• Hand in documents demonstrating mastery of the basic document design skills—particularly the effective use of headings, white space, bullet and number lists, tables, headers and footers, sections, and paragraph styles using Microsoft Word.
• Demonstrate professional standards for reliability, communication, pro-active problem solving, critical analysis, and cooperation in working on group and individual projects.
10. Grading Scheme
The course grade consists of 100 course-grade points. The course letter grade will be entered according to this conversion scheme, which is the standard policy at Towson for undergraduate grading:
Percentage Range / Letter Grade / Grade Quality Points93.5-100 / A / 4.00
89.5-93.4 / A- / 3.67
86.5-89.4 / B+ / 3.33
83.5-86.4 / B / 3.00
79.5-83.4 / B- / 2.67
76.5-79.4 / C+ / 2.33
69.5-76.4 / C / 2.00
66.5-69.4 / D+ / 1.33
59.5-66.4 / D / 1.00
0-59.4 / F / 0.00
The numerical course grade is based on component grades given during the semester for the following deliverables:
Exams / Due Date10 / Exam #1: / Legal Basics, Constitution, Courts, Legal System / 2/28/11
15 / Exam #2: (Midterm) / Crime and Intentional Torts / 3/16/11
15 / Exam#3: / Negligence, Product Liability, Intellectual Property / 4/25/11
20 / Exam #4: (Final) / Contracts / 5/20/11
0 / Writing Assignments
10 / Writing Assignment#1 / Case Summary—FTC v. Trudeau / 2/14/11
15 / Writing Assignment#2 / Case Summary—Jason Jason v. Kappa Alpha Order, Inc. / 4/4/11
10 / Writing Assignment#3 / Blogs, Class Problems, Comments, and Homework / See Syllabus
5 / Class Participation / Case Presentations, Relevant Event Attendance, etc.
100
11. Deadlines for Assignments
All assignments are due via email NO LATER at 11:59 PM on the due date. Deadlines for all assignments have been posted and will be explained in class well in advance of when the documents are due. Remember, I do not accept late assignments. Failure to submit assignments will have an enormous impact on your final grade.
12. File Naming Convention
All work with exception of assignments posted to our social network must be submitted using a naming convention that I have created. This convention helps me sort through the hundreds of documents submitted throughout the semester. Any work submitted without this convention will be rejected, resulting in a zero (0) for the assignment. Remember, three missing assignments will result in a 20% reduction in your grade.
Subject: LEGL225_004_ASSIGNMENT NAME
File: LastName_FirstName_ASSIGNMENTNAME (ex. JohnsonQuincey_WA2_Ethics)
Remember: I only accept files in Microsoft Word 2003 (or later).
13. Attendance Policy
Students MUST attend all classes, arrive on time, and participate in the entire class session. Don’t miss class participation in any week of the semester unless you have no choice because missing class will cause a substantial hit to your course grade.
Rationale
Students should regard this class as a community of learners. You will learn much from one another through the in-class and online discussions and through the interaction with me in class. Given the importance of student-student and student-instructor interaction in this course, there are penalties for missing class meetings and online discussions. Instructors follow University guidelines as stated in the Undergraduate Catalog (“Class Attendance/Absence Policy”) to determine whether an absence is excused or unexcused. According to University’s policy (Undergraduate Catalog 2006-2007 p. 22) students are excused for the following reasons:
· Illness or injury when the student is unable to attend class
· Religious observance where the nature of the observance prevents the student from attending class
· Participation in university activities at the request of university authorities (e.g. Intercollegiate Athletics, Forensics Team, Dance Company, etc.)
· Compelling verifiable circumstances beyond the control of the student
Excusing Absences and Completing Make-up Work
If you think you have a good reason for missing a class meeting or discussion-board participation in an online week, you may request that your absence be excused. To do this, send me an email memo explaining the circumstances. If I agree that the explanation as to why you were absent constitutes a good excuse for missing the meeting or online participation, I will grant your request. I will grant no more than two such requests for anyone during a semester unless you have a documented good excuse. (I explain more about documenting an excuse below.)
If you are absent, you should try to provide documentation verifying that the reason was something beyond your control, such as a form or note from a healthcare provider, a court, a law enforcement agency, or your supervisor at work. You may request up to two excused absences without offering to document the excuse and earn them by turning in acceptable make-up assignments on time. If circumstances force you to request more excused absences that two, you must provide some sort of documentation to verify your excuse for the third absence and any subsequent absences. If health problems cause you to miss more than three classes, I may require that you seek a disability letter.
Request for Excused Absence
Requests for excused absences must be e-mailed in memo format, with documentation attached, at the class session immediately following the absence. Requests for excused absences for religious observations must be made prior to the absence.
One unexcused absence will be waived.
Grade Deductions for Absences, Early Leaving, and Lateness
· Each unexcused absence = 3 percent of grade deduction
· Each late classroom arrival = 1 percent grade deduction
· Low or no classroom participation or other non-professional behavior = point deductions at discretion of instructors
· Four unexcused absences will most likely result in an F for the course.
14. Behavior
Students are expected to govern their online and face-to-face communication and interaction to the norms of courteous and respectful behavior expected at Towson. I will caution and counsel violators of these norms in private.
If a student who has been warned repeats unacceptable behavior, I will report the matter to the appropriate university authorities, which may result in the student's removal from the course.
University Code of Conduct: Students are expected to know and follow the Code of Student Conduct (http://www.towson.edu/studentaffairs/policies/conduct.asp) as found in the 2009-2010 University Catalog, Appendix F, pp. 232. The Student Conduct Rationale section reads as follows:
The primary purpose for the imposition of discipline in the university setting is to protect the campus community. Consistent with that purpose, reasonable efforts will also be made to foster the personal, educational and social development of those students who are held accountable for violations of university regulations. However, the university must commit its policies and procedures first of all to protect and promote the academic enterprise. Consequently, it may be necessary to suspend or expel students who have been found responsible for violations of this Code, or who otherwise pose a substantial danger to the campus community.
Cell phone and Smart Phone policy: During on-site class meetings, please turn off cell phones and smart phones. If it is absolutely necessary to keep one of these devices turned on to receive an important call, please turn off the device’s ring tone and set it to alert you inaudibly. If you have to answer a phone call during class, please leave the room as unobtrusively as possible. If you are caught using a cell phone for text-messaging or any non-class purpose during class, you will lose 50 percent or more of Class Participation score, and you may be asked to leave the class.
Use of laptop computers in class: During on-site class meetings, if you wish to use a laptop computer to take notes, please leave the wireless modem off. You should not be using the laptop to check email, surf the Web, or work on assignments unrelated to this course—anyone caught using their computer in this fashion will lose 50 percent or more of Class Participation score, and you may be asked to leave the class.