Business and Law Syllabus

BLW 1001
Prof. Jean Marie Hazelton
Wednesdays 10:40 am 1:30 pm
Email: stjohnsbusinesslaw@gmail.com
Office phone: 631-283-6400
Cell 516-381-4666
St. Johns University
Fall 2016
Required Text:
The site below is for the free online book:
Text: saylor.org Academy, Business Law and the Legal Environment [available free of charge
at Saylor Academy Open Textbooks:http://www.saylor.org/books/ ] Also available at:
https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_business-law-and-the-legal-environment-v1.0-a/

Tenants Rights Guide by NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/Tenant_Rights_201
1.pdf
Case law through Lexis Nexus Academic via St. Johns University digital
library
Libraries.stjohns.edu
This course should prepare you understand basic legal concepts that will
pertain to your personal business as well as in the larger economic world.
You will learn the fundamental aspects on gaining entry to the business
world and will engage in legal transactional work. Through setting up and
forming your own business in a group setting, you will learn to evaluate the
benefits of corporations, partnerships, sole proprietorship and will evaluate
the legal steps needed to accomplish same and to consider credit,
insurance, employment rights, property issues as well as criminal
components that effect business. Students will be required to keep up with
current events.
Grading Policy:
In the real world, when you have a business or legal problem, you will not
have to solve that problem based on memory alone, you will solve that

problem using every resource available to you: textbooks, the internet,

statutes, your friends, parents or someone you can telephone. As I am
trying to prepare you for the real business world, you will not be tested in
the traditional way via exams or quizzes. Instead, you will do
presentations, weekly writing assignments and will document in writing
your transactional work. If you do all the work given ON TIME, attend class,
participate in class discussions, do your presentations, do your miniinternship, you will receive an A. If you fail to turn in an assignment, you
are given an F for that assignment. In essence, each student starts out with
an A. Extraordinary effort will be rewarded and appreciated. Work that is
turned in that does not show good effort will be returned and will be redone
until satisfactory effort is shown.
Attendance Policy:
Attendance will be taken each class. All students will sign a weekly
attendance sheet. Only two absences will be allowed, after that,
unexcused absences will lower your grade.
WORK TO BE DONE THIS SEMESTER:
Weekly current events summaries:
In order for you to have intelligent conversations with employers, your
professors and people in general, and to understand the legal context of
the world, you must know about the most important current events. Each
of you will subscribe to The Skimm (www.theskimm.com). It is free and
Monday through Friday you will receive an email consisting of a one page
summary of what has happened in the world that you should know about.
The authors of The Skimm are also hilarious, so this is quite painless. After
you read it, you will write a few sentences about something in the daily
skimm that you have an opinion on. Twice a semester, I will ask you to
print out your running Word document with your Skimm reviews. This will
help to show me that you are reading it. Each week you should add to a
word document so that the same work document will have all your skimms
by the end of the semester Please hand in your Skimm document on:
October 5, 2016
November 9, 2016
Note: November 8, 2016 is the last day you have to Skimm.

The mini-internship/shadowing experience:

Experience shows that internships lead to employment opportunities. The
right internships are hard to obtain and time consuming. My miniinternship is not time consuming and not that hard to obtain. It can be a
hassle for an employer to take on an intern, especially with all the legal
controversy about unpaid internships. It is much easier for an employer to
take you on if you only are asking to shadow them for one day. In my
previous classes, almost all mini-internships lead to offers of full summer
internships, employment connections and offers of help. In a word,
priceless. You must seek out your own one day internship and complete it
by the end of the semester.
Resume:
In order to obtain a mini-internship, you will need (or should have), a
resume. A representative from career services will guest lecture as to how
the resume is to be prepared. You must prepare a resume in one of the
three formats she will present.
Due October 12, 2016 (must have been reviewed by career
services before handing in)
Letterhead:
In order to send your resume out, you will need to draft cover letters. This
must be done on stationary that you have created.
Due October 12, 2016
Cover letter:
You shall select one company that you will attempt to get an internship
with. Try and call the company to find out the name of the person you
would address your inquiry to. Prepare a draft of a cover letter that will go
with your resume.
Due October 12, 2016
One to One Meeting with career services
Each student shall schedule a meeting with career services. You must have
your resume prepared before the meeting and your cover letter as well so

she can discuss them and give you further guidance on shadowing
opportunities and her opinion on the effectiveness of your resume.
You should have your meeting scheduled by September 21, 2016.
Make your appointment now as her openings fill up quickly. Email
me confirmation of your scheduled appointment and then email
once you have attended the appointment.
Extra credit opportunity:
If you write a feature article on someone who is in the position to give you
introductions to the business world and if it gets published in either THE
TORCH or the SJU alumni magazine, you will get extra credit.
Forming a business: SHARK TANK
You will work in groups of 5 -6 students to form a business. Your business
will be given a budget of $250,000.00. You will have to create a business
plan and decide which type of business entity should operate the business.
A business operating agreement will be drawn up by the group. You will
identify what legal arrangements you will need to make the business
operational for the first year. You will also have to obtain a web page for
your project with a real domain (from GoDaddy.com this costs about
$10.00). Design a simple website.
The group will come up with a document that covers the business
operating agreement. Each individual member of the group will
write their own journal of what they contributed to the formation
of the business, what things they had wanted in the agreement
and why, what things did not find their way into the agreement
that you would have wanted. You will explain your justification for
your business plan and how the agreement was protecting your
interests.
Due date for this assignment: October 26 2016.
Preliminary Shark Tank presentation with group to take place on
October 26, 2016
SHARK TANK presentation will be on the last day of class,
December 7, 2016.
Transactional experience:

In this assignment you must call up a real business enterprise that you or
your family currently does business with and you must try and get a better
deal. You will write a one page summary of your experience and outcome.
Most students have had the most success with getting significant
reductions with their Cable bills, but you are not limited to that.
Due date October 5, 2016
Insurance Assignment: (This is the Mid-term assignment) Very
Important!!
You will answer a serious of essay questions regarding insurance and then
you will call four different insurance companies and get quotes for car
insurance. You will need to have a specific car in mind when you call for
your quotes and who the driver of the car will be. If you dont drive or
dont have a car, do this based on the car and particulars of a person with
a car. If you do not know anyone with a car, I will send you to campus
ministry and you can get price quotes for the car of one of the priests.
Due date September 28, 2016.
Presentation:
For each of the topics presented, there will be some case law that will be
read. Each student will be assigned to present one case to the class during
the semester. I will assign the cases and tell you when your case must be
presented.
Living will, health care proxy and letters to your parents:
You will write a letter to your parents describing to them what you want
done to your organs or with respect to life support if you were ever in a
tragic accident. We will review your rights, your parents rights, and the
legal documents that exist that guide these situations. You will read Cruan
v. Director, Missouri Dept of Health, et al, 497 U.S. 261 (United States
Supreme Court) and about Grace Lee http://www.nydailynews.com/newyork/queens/breathing-tube-stops-killing-grace-lee-article-1.1261625
Due date September 21, 2016.
Contract:
You will prepare a simple contract and explain in footnotes how you have
included all the necessary material elements that must be included in a

contract to make it valid. You will contract with another Shark Tank group
for products or services.
Due date November 2, 2016
Final take home examination:
To be handed in on last day of class December 7, 2016.
Elisa Zervos, Career & Internship Advisor, University Career Services
zervose@stjohns.edu
718-990-6375
TOPICS TO BE COVERED IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE:
The Court System
Review of the concept of subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction
and the role of Surrogates Court, Family Court, Supreme Court, County
Court, Appellate Division, Court of Appeals, Appellate Term, District Court,
Court of Claims, NYC Civil Courts, Town City- Village Justice Courts, special
problem solving courts like Drug Court, the Federal Courts and
administrative agencies. Identify the types and sources of law in the
American legal system.
Owing and forming a business
Review of purposes of corporations, partnerships, limited liability
companies, sole proprietorship, DBA (doing business as), the S corp.,
workers compensation, agency, vicarious liability.
Show me the money!
Review of debtor-creditor laws, account stated, bankruptcy, reading the
fine print on financing agreements, credit card agreements and comparing
banking products.
The landlord/tenant from hell!
A review of a typical lease and consequences of breaking a lease, remedies
of the landlord and tenant.

http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/Tenant_Rights_201
1.pdf
This publication must be read by October 19, 2016.
But Officer, I only had one drink!
Review of criminal law
Analysis of a VTL 1192 case driving while intoxicated/driving while
impaired, when to take the breathalyzer consequences of refusing and
the interrelationship between the NYS Department of Motor Vehicles.
Compare and contrast civil law and criminal law
Social Media
Review of privacy issues (or rather, the lack thereof), consequences of
abuse of social media.
Review of Insurance. Understanding insurance policies, coverage, notice
requirements, disclaimers, exclusions including automobile coverage with
no-fault, supplemental underinsured motorist coverage, workers
compensation, contractors insurance, life insurance, disability insurance,
long-term care, health insurance, homeowners or hazard insurance, fire
insurance, renters insurance, umbrella policies.
Tales of the Boom Boom Room!
A look at workplace litigation including sexual harassment, discrimination,
workplace conduct and fair wages /overtime.
Lets make a deal!
Review of contract law, offer, acceptance, consideration, illegality, statute
of frauds.
Enumerate the elements of a valid contract
Distinguish between bilateral and unilateral contracts
Distinguish between implied and express contract
Nature and classes of contracts
Elements of contracts
Mutual Assent
Conduct Invalidating Assent
Consideration

Illegal Bargains
Contractual Capacity
Contracts in Writing
Third Parties to Contracts
Performance, Breach and discharge

Torts

Review of personal injury, negligence, intentional torts with issues of duty,

breach of duty, causation and damages. Statute of limitations, venue,
service of process, methods to commence lawsuits, pleadings. Define
intentional torts, negligence and strict liability
Fracking:
We will discuss this topic and will try and include videos and case
presentations on this topic.
ASSIGNMENTS MAY VARY DEPENDING ON CURRENT EVENTS.
Ferguson: Due September 14, 2016 each student will read the Grand
Jury minutes of Officer Wilson and 150 additional pages chosen by each
student. We will have a class discussion on February 3, 2016 and each
student will report on what their witnesses testified to (this way we will
have reports on various aspects of almost 5,000 pages of testimony). This
is important because it is one of the few times in history that the transcript
(called the minutes) of the Grand Jury has been released to the public. The
incident has become a historical event and the class will see the
importance of researching source material instead of relying on media
reports for information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/opinion/ending-grand-jury-secrecy-for-cases-like-eric-garners.html?_r=0
The testimony:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/25/1347312/-4-799-pages-of-grand-jury-testimony-in-the-DarrenWilson-case

Textbook reading schedule:

Assignment

I will provide a reading schedule of the chapters of the Sayers

book.
Real Estate Financing assignment:
Due October 12, 2016
You must find a property on the internet where if you purchased it,
your monthly payment would be $1,500 or less. We will learn
during the class of September 28, 2016 how to do this. You will
assume that you are a first time homebuyer and are getting 97%
financing. Your monthly costs are to include:
Principal
Interest
Taxes
Homeowners Insurance
Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)
Maintenance (either set by a condo/coop or an allowance for
utilities like electric, heating oil, cable, water)
You will each present the property you found by showing the class
the property on the internet using the podium computer so be
prepared to access it from your email or other method.
Presentations will be on October 12, 2016.
Credit Card:
Due November 16, 2016
You must research what credit card works best for you and write a
one page report on which credit card you selected and why.
Letter of recommendation:
You must write a letter of recommendation about yourself. Pretend
you are a professor writing a letter for you for graduate school.
Due November 30, 2016.
Take home Final Due Wednesday December 7, 2016