The law of corporate finance and financial markets

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

15.617 is an introduction to business law which covers the fundamentals, including contracts, liability, regulation, employment, and corporations, with an in-depth treatment of the law of finance, including law-sensitive aspects of M&A transactions, national and international financial and securities markets, venture capital and private equity, the financial structure of the corporation and other business entities, antitrust, bankruptcy and reorganization, the regulation of financial service providers, and the regulatory and liability risks associated with innovative financial products and services.

I offer the following three law courses at Sloan:

Based on my experience as a practicing lawyer, I recommend that students at Sloan take a law course. Managers face many law-sensitive issues that are crucial to the welfare of their companies and their own careers. These issues often arise suddenly and outside the normal course of business. Each of my courses is designed to give you the understanding you will need to exercise good judgement and leadership in those situations. Each course will also provide you with the foundation in law that you will need to make effective use of legal advisors, and to develop later in your careers a more sophisticated understanding of any legal issues that are central to your particular responsibilities.

However, I do not expect students to take more than one law course. Thus my courses are designed as an array of choices, not a sequence, and there is substantial overlap with respect to legal fundamentals. You should pick the one that interests you most.

Students should attend class, since material is covered that is not in the readings. Attendance is taken. Absences for good cause (such as job hunting or family obligations) are excused. You should e-mail the TA before or shortly after the class in question, with a "cc" to the instructor, to request an excused absence. You do not need to include any personal details with the request.

All students are expected to participate in class discussion. In addition, for each class, some students will be assigned in advance to be "on-deck." "On-deck" students should make certain that they prepare with special care and are ready to respond to questions about the readings. Guest lecturers are invited to call on the on-deck students. Each student will be "on-deck" approximately three times.

There are two take-home exercises. Students have three hours for an exercise, and some choice as to the particular three-hour period. The exercises have been scheduled to be available during the periods shown on the assignments page. For each exercise, each student will make arrangements with the TA to receive the exam by e-mail at a mutually determined time during the availability period, and will e-mail back the completed exam within three hours of receiving it. The second exercise will cover only material not covered by the first.

During the period the exercises are available, students may not consult any other person about the content of the course.

The exercises heavily emphasize the required readings. The questions and format will be similar to previous years (although the exercises from some past years were of different lengths.) Past exercises and a sample answer will be made available to students.

It is not expected that students will need the full three hours to complete the exercise. I use this format so that a student does not have to write fast to do well. This may be of special importance to students for whom English is a second language.

If you take more than one of my courses, an additional research paper will be required in the second course, on a topic to be determined in discussions with the instructor.

Grading is not tied to a formula, but will be based approximately as shown below:

Students should purchase: Bagley, Constance E., and Craig E. Dauchy. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law. 2nd ed. South-Western College Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 0324042914. We will read most of this book. There will also be a course-reader available at the MIT copy center later in the semester.

This is the first year this course is offered. It is replacing a half semester course (15.649) given in past years on the law of M&A.

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