Case law analysis: contract law

For this assessment, you will first select an actual business-related legal case, pertaining to the topic of contract law, based on briefly conducting associated research. Based on that, you will then select an organization that you believe would be impacted by that legal case.

 Having completed both of these tasks, you should assume you’re a senior manager in the organization you selected, and that you were asked to perform an analysis of the legal case and to write an executive briefing for the executive team of that same organization. Your executive briefing should include a summary of the case, as well as an evaluation of how the case impacts the organization.

The purpose of this format is two-fold:

1. To give you the opportunity to research and investigate a real court decision.
2. To challenge you to think about the business implications of the case, and specifically how the case will impact an actual organization.

In your case law analysis you must be able to navigate the court’s decision, and summarize and evaluate it. You may choose any business-related court case, either state or federal, as the basis for your case law executive briefing, as long as the case is applicable to the assessment topic. 

You are expected to conduct your own independent research to locate and evaluate the applicability of cases. A few appropriate case law websites are recommended for you in the Resources, but you are not limited to using cases from these sites.

For this assessment, use credible legal research databases and online resources, research federal and state court cases, and select any business-related case that has been decided by a state court, a federal court, or the United States Supreme Court. Then select an organization (potentially the organization for which you work) that you believe the selected case might impact. Write an executive briefing that addresses the following:

1. Articulate the context and relevance of law in a business environment:
   • Identify the parties who are before the court.
   • Provide a brief background and context associated with the case. Summarize the facts in no more than 2–3 paragraphs.
   • Identify the specific disagreement between the parties.
   • Explain the ruling of the court and its business relevance in no more than 1–2 paragraphs. Was there a dissenting opinion? If so, explain why some of the judges or justices disagreed with the majority in the decision.
2. Evaluate the business impact of the case:
   • Summarize your analysis of how the case will impact businesses in general, including both positive and negative impacts.
   • Indicate the organization you selected as potentially impacted by the case and why you selected that organization.
   • Explain how the case will impact the specific organization you selected, such that the executive team will understand the implications of the legal decision.

Based on your executive audience, your executive briefing should be no more than two pages, and should be well organized and written in clear, succinct language. Follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions.

Academic Integrity and APA Formatting

As a reminder related to using APA rules to ensure academic honesty:

1. When using a direct quote (using exact or nearly exact wording), you must enclose the quoted wording in quotation marks, immediately followed by an in-text citation. The source must then be listed in your references page.
2. When paraphrasing (using your own words to describe a non-original idea), the paraphrased idea must be immediately followed by an in-text citation and the source must be listed in your references page.