Exam 1: Legal Foundations and Thinking Strategically

Marty Company, located in Illinois, learns that the state of Illinois will be increasing taxes on all businesses. Before the tax goes into effect, Marty Company relocates to Missouri where the taxes are far lower on businesses. This type of business strategy is called:

Much of the origins of the law dealt with issues related to property ownership.

Brooke and Travis are looking to build a small building where they can run their trendy coffee shop as a business. When they find the perfect spot, they are told that cannot put a business there because it is zoned residential. The zoning limit is an example of

Common law is used by

Shelby's Sea Shells Company, realizes that it is losing money daily and must file to the bankruptcy. Which level of government's law would apply?

The courts always apply the doctrine of stare decisis.

Lisa owns a wedding planning business. Her signature wedding services are in demand all over the country and keep her very busy. She seeks legal advice from counsel when necessary. A new federal statute becomes effective in six months that allows a wedding planner to protect their signature wedding techniques as a trade secret and also creates penalties if a wedding planner infringes upon the protected trade secrets of another wedding planner. Chris, her trusted counsel, offers four strategies to plan for the new statute. First, Chris says the penalties are rather small compared to the profit she makes each time she plans a wedding. Therefore, she can just ignore the new law and all the hassle that comes with it. A second option Chris offers is that should could change her business classification from a wedding planner to an event planner because this new law only applies to wedding planners and not event planners. He believes this is a legal loophole. The third option Chris offers is to register some of her most popular services as trade secrets and create a brochure where she lists the types of signature wedding plans she has registered and not deviate from that list of offered services. This will ensure that she does not risk infringing upon a trade secret another wedding planner has protected. Finally, the fourth option Chris offers is that since the law is relatively new and virtually unknown to anyone in her industry, they should register for every possible type of wedding technique that she has ever used or can think to possibly use in the future. This will limit the options of all the other wedding planners and will therefore make her the wedding planner with the most services to offer. For each of the four options Chris offered, identify and briefly explain the type of business strategy employed.

Each day that Tara goes to work she parks on the street in front of an expired meter. She is fully aware that she will get a $3.00 parking ticket each time that she does this. The closest parking lot charges $100.00 a month to park there. Therefore, Tara decides that it is cheaper to disregard the law because benefit outweighs the cost in that it is cheaper for her to pay the daily parking ticket than the monthly rate for the parking lot. This type of strategy is called:

Business Corporation Law is an example of what type of law?

Alexander entered into a contract with Eowynn to purchase a vintage 1962 Shelby Cobra for $5000.00. After both parties agreed to the price Eowynn learned that the actual market value of the car is around $760,000.00. She therefore decides to back out of the deal and offers to give Alexander his money back. Alexander does not want the money. He wants the car. For what remedy might Alexander sue Eowynn?

A business securing patents for all of their creations and inventions is an example of what type of business strategy?

The governmental body charged with actually enforcing and carrying out the laws promulgated by Congress is:

Employing stare decisis and precedent allows a business to predict how the court will treat their situation and plan strategically.

According to the doctrine of stare decisis cases with similar facts and issues should have the same outcome.

Janet enters into a contract with Laura to tutor her in Chemistry one day a week for a year. After the second session, Janet decides to stop tutoring Laura due to their conflciting schedules. Laura sues Janet for breach of contract. This is an example of:

Japan, for example, does not rely extensively on precedent, but rather adheres to a strict interpretation of a legislatively established code or regulation. What type of system of law is that called?

Bekah owns Sweet Creations, a bakery which is famous for making the most delicious organic baked goods. Bekah learns that a bill, being publicly debated in Congress, is likely to become law which will require any bakeries stating that their products are organic to purchase all of baked goods through one central supplier to ensure accuracy and quality of baked goods deemed organic. Finding out this information, Bekah contacts the central supplier to enter into a long term contract for the lowest possible price of the supplies as she predicts the prices will soar once the general public learns of this new law. Bekah

Rachel recently earned her driver's license. She learned all the rules of the road within her state, Illinois, and aced her Illinois driver's test. While traveling through Missouri, she follows all of the traffic rules that she learned in Illinois. If a Missouri traffic rule conflicts with an Illinois law, which one would apply to an Illinois licensed driver who is driving in Missouri?

Kevin is in-house counsel for a major corporation. The chief officer, Steve, wants to create a company policy whereby if an employee is pregnant, she will only work a maximum of 30 hours a week so as to not overwork the pregnant employee. Steve asks Kevin to research the law to determine if there would be any potential legal risks with the course of action. This type of business strategy is called

The "general counsel," may also