LAW-2555 Business Planning
Boston is a dynamic innovation center for the U.S. and world. Every day new businesses are being created and financed. At the heart of a corporate and securities lawyer's practice is the provision of advice and guidance to businesses and their owners. Such advice is transactional in nature, distinct from litigation counsel. Successful attorneys develop the skills necessary to understand business objectives, offer intelligent solutions and effectively communicate and work with business executives. The Business Planning class is designed to help students develop such critical planning and counseling skills. The course provides a general survey of the basic factors to be considered in the organization, financing, operation, and liquidation of the non-public business venture. The material covered is multi-disciplinary in scope, including choice of entity, taxation, intellectual property, venture capital, and securities regulation. Prior completion of the following courses is highly recommended: LLCs and Partnerships, Corporations and/or Securities Regulation. The course will have a skills focus. Most students will be assigned (and graded based on) a variety of business lawyer practice-oriented assignments such as the reviewing or drafting of various documents (business plans, term sheets, LLC operating agreements, founding shareholder agreements, etc.). In addition, third year day students, who need to fulfill the legal writing requirement, can elect to be graded on the basis of a paper (relevant course-related topic to be selected by student) in lieu of the practical written assignments. Students will be asked to select the paper or written assignments option during the first two weeks of class: up to five students will be allowed to exercise this option. Students using this course to fulfill the experiential learning requirement may not also use this same course to meet the legal writing requirement.