This casebook covers the law of "closely held" businesses--those with few owners. Such businesses face special problems when compared, for example, to large, publicly held corporations. The book primarily covers four legal areas, through cases, statutes, and original informational notes and commentary: (1) agency law (covering questions of authority, fiduciary duties, and respondeat superior); (2) partnership law (the Revised Uniform Partnership Act and significant common-law developments); (3) the law of close corporations (basic corporate structure, common-law underpinnings and modern statutes, and protections of minority interests); and (4) the law of limited liability companies (LLCs). The book also introduces some problems in the law of small nonprofit organizations and of hybrid companies, such as the "low-profit" LLCs that have been authorized by recent statutes. The book is intended for use in modern versions of the "Agency and Partnership" course, courses on unincorporated or closely held businesses, and the first part of integrated "Business Organizations" sequences of courses. It adopts a functionalist approach to law and introduces students to economic reasoning in business law without relying exclusively on the methods or ideologies of legal economists.

This is still the most comprehensive business organizations casebook to focus on closely held business. The book offers more coverage on LLCs than any other business organizations book, and the principal change in the new edition focuses on the most recent uniform LLC Act (as well as Delaware law). Everything else has been brought up to date, including material on the Model Business Corporation Act (which now speaks as of December 2010), Delaware law (which includes corporations, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies), and federal securities law (included in the public corporation supplement).

Like its companion the Corporate Director's Guidebook, this new title covers topics in plain English so the principles are easily understood by nonlawyers

As a part of our CasebookPlus offering, you'll receive the print book along with lifetime digital access to the eBook. Additionally you'll receive the Learning Library which includes quizzes tied specifically to your book, and outline starter and digital access to leading study aids in that subject and the Gilbert Law Dictionary. This title covers the law of business associations for introductory courses. It discusses business organizations, including agency, general partnerships, closely held corporations, publicly held corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and limited liability companies. The material on the unincorporated business forms has been revised, updated, and expanded to reflect the centrality of these forms of business organization in modern law practice and in the economy generally. Among other state and model statutes, the Revised Uniform LLC Act (2006), the Revised Uniform Partnership Act (1997), the Uniform Limited Partnership Act (2001), and the Third Restatement of Agency (2006) are discussed and cited.

Corporate law and governance are at the forefront of regulatory activities worldwide, and subject to increasing public attention in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Comprehensively referencing the key debates, the Handbook provides a much-needed framework for understanding the aims and methods of legal research in the field.

"The planning discussions reflect the impact of tax changes through the close of 2010 and include new commentary on today's toughest challenges: the struggle to crawl out of a debilitating recession; the drop in global demand and associated deleveraging; the causes and effects of chronic unemployment; unprecedented government debts and deficits; the scope and impacts of the banking financial crisis; the perpetual uncertainty of taxes; the challenges of health care reform in the years ahead; and tax prospects for the future."--Publisher's website.