Syllabus LEB 320F Foundations of Business Law Ethics Fall 2015 Instructor Brad Gold Time Tuesday Thursday a 11am 12 30pm b 12 30pm 2pm c 2pm 3 30pm Classroom GSB 2 124 Unique a 03500 b 03505 c 03510 Brad s Office CBA 5 252 Office Hours Tuesday Thursday 9am 10 30am or by appointment Office Phone 512 232 8196 Office E mail bradley gold McCombs utexas edu Course Objectives After taking this course students should be able to 1 2 3 4 Identify legal and ethical issues that arise in common business transactions Demonstrate knowledge of business law and business ethics and be able to apply such knowledge to real world business situations and transactions Apply legal reasoning and critical analysis to business issues involving legal questions Become aware of ethics issues in business and formulate defensible resolutions Introduction Social order is essential to successful commerce As one of the primary means for maintaining social order legal principles and processes facilitate the creation and operation of markets and individual businesses by providing necessary assurance to investors sellers buyers employees and others that their reasonable commercial expectations will be realized While serving this positive function however law simultaneously operates as the most pervasive external constraint on business decision making Customary ethical norms also constitute a significant factor in both the maintenance of social order and the imposition of external constraints on business Students should study the legal regulatory and ethical environment of business for most of the same reasons that they study other core subjects in which they do not intend to specialize They must be able to identify issues pertaining to the particular discipline recognize potential problems before they become actualized and costly know when they need to consult an expert and when they do not it is very inefficient to send every proposed communication or planned course of action past an attorney understand the language practices and methods of reasoning and problem solving in the discipline so that the expert can be used effectively and efficiently and have sufficient insight into the discipline so that the service and advice of the expert can be knowledgeably evaluated and incorporated into the firm s decision making processes A top executive of a Fortune 50 company recently noted i t s not possible to think of a business strategy that doesn t have a legal compliance and regulatory element to it And the Dean of the Yale School of Management recently wrote that a ll students should gain a fundamental understanding of business law There are no limits to general stupidity and ignorance but any single mind may be primed to avoid it Pffft Facts are meaningless You can use facts to prove anything that s even remotely true Homer Simpson Course Materials 1 2 3 BUSINESS LAW TEXT CASES by Allison Prentice 15th Edition by University Co op Available in electronic and or paper format Your head bring it to class every day Your heart please bring it too even if your Schmoopy broke it last weekend Grading Policy As an ETHICS LEADERSHIP flagged course at least 1 3 of your grade will come from work in practical ethics applications such as analyzing a product or business from an ethical perspective In terms of testing this knowledge you may expect to have a short paper assigned at some point in the first half of the semester and you may see ethics related questions on your exams This class will convey knowledge that you will actually be able to use outside of the classroom I promise For example did you know that diesel powered cars obtaining 50 MPG are common in Europe but many of them aren t even available to buy in the USA See You re already learning useful things I am not here to trick you or teach you useless things Rather I intend to introduce you to the world of ethics business and law in a way that is intended to help you become a more successful professional irrespective of the career path you choose Exams will be open book and open note Exams are tentatively scheduled to be mid October and mid November Finals will be during finals week and you may visit the Registrar s website to confirm that time and date of your final PLEASE SHOW UP TO THE CORRECT FINAL Approximate breakdown of grading is 30 ethics paper 40 split between two midterms that will include a peppering of ethics questions and 30 for the final Once the wheels are in motion for our class I will confirm exact dates of exams and all other due dates I will provide you with sufficient advance notice of all due dates so don t freak out Class Attendance Participation Policy I have heard every excuse you can imagine for missing class or an exam For example Professor Gold it was my 21st birthday last night and I drank too much and I lost my pants and I spent all night looking for them and had to sleep under the Waller Creek bridge and then I had no money for breakfast tacos and couldn t make it to class today is NOT an excuse It s actually a story I d rather not hear So just show up and leave the excuses wherever your pants may be lost If you can t make it to one class no big deal that happens If you miss a second class I hope you ve made friends in class like I encourage you to do so you have a reliable source to obtain notes If you miss more than two classes it will become exceedingly difficult to do well in this class so please be here Attendance will not count towards your grade but if you aren t here the tests will be MUCH HARDER and you will not learn as much And if you fail to attend class you will not only miss valuable explanations and Q A sessions but you may also miss extra credit opportunities IF YOU MISS CLASS I WILL NOT FURNISH NOTES POWERPOINT SLIDES OR OTHER MATERIALS DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS IF YOU MISS CLASS IT IS YOUR INDEPENDENT RESPONSIBILITY TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU MISSED Assignments Homework Daily homework assignments will be given out in class and posted on Canvas I do not intend to bury you with reading and homework and will aim to be selective with the work assigned in this class Therefore please put forth a solid effort with the assigned work Homework may consist of textbook reading reading articles about current events in business law and ethics watching videos on YouTube or making a diorama Privacy in Canvas Information in Canvas is protected by your UTEID login Please be aware that I may use a merged Canvas site for all sections of the course that I