Memorandum for MBA level business law

These Guidelines give you an outline of the critical elements to be addressed. FOLLOW THE OUTLINE! Clearly label your sections and clearly address the required criteria in each section. FOLLOW THE OUTLINE! Don’t make up your own section titles, stick to those in the outline from the Guidelines. FOLLOW THE OUTLINE! Do not deviate from the outline. FOLLOW THE OUTLINE! Hint: I want you to follow the outline. If this is unclear, please ask me for clarification.

I. Introduction: Articulate what you feel are the strengths of your company’s legal claim or defense. (The intro should be a brief general summary of the facts as they pertain to your client. Do NOT repeat all of the facts from the prompt. Summarize. Briefly. A chronological summary is the preferred approach. Make sure to state briefly but specifically what you think the strengths of your client’s case are. This section should be no more than 3 paragraphs long. Remember, this is an intro, you will go into details later in the memo.)

II. Client’s Case

A. Facts and Laws

1. Analyze the facts related to employment discrimination or unlawful termination based on your company’s perspective. (Discuss and analyze the facts related to employment discrimination or unlawful termination from your company’s perspective. If you are representing Greene, Lawson is making a Title VII employment discrimination claim against you so you should discuss Title VII, PDA (and any other potential issues) here but you do not need to go into extreme detail. If you are representing Howell, you should discuss unlawful termination due to her firing for being tardy as well as fraudulent inducement. For both clients, employment at will should be discussed. Remember, this is a memo. But, you need enough detail so the reader understands your position. Do not simply repeat the facts from the prompt scenario here.)

2. Analyze the facts related to contract issues based on your company’s perspective. (Discuss the facts related to contract issues from your company’s perspective. (Greene will have confidentiality agreement issues and Howell has an actual employment contract with non-compete provisions. Howell will also have some contract issues related to fraudulent inducement.)

3. Identify the operative employment and contract laws that apply to your company’s case. (Here you should identify the laws that might apply to both employment and contract issues for your company’s case. You should identify the law and briefly state how it applies. At a minimum, you should identify any laws you mentioned above in sections 1 & 2 and any others (state and/or federal) that might apply. Make sure you do this in a separate section.)

B. Precedent

1. Select cases that support your company’s position in terms of employment discrimination or unlawful termination . Justify why they support its case. (Do some research, find some cases that directly apply and list them here with a brief explanation of how they apply. The cases don’t have to be New Hampshire cases. For example, if you are Greene, you should look for some pregnancy discrimination cases that have a similar fact pattern. For Howell, termination due to tardiness and fraudulent inducement could apply in this section. Note that the rubric says “cases” so you need, at least, two cases here. There are many, many cases with similar facts that will apply here. Good places to find cases are the Lexis/Nexis database and HeinOnline in the Shapiro Library and Google Scholar. You will be able to find plenty of relevant cases using only these sources.)

2. Select cases that support your company’s position in terms of contract disputes . Justify why they support its case. (Same as section 1 above but for contract issues. For Greene that would be breach of confidentiality agreements. For Howell consider non-compete and stealing trade secrets cases as well as the fraudulent inducement issues.)

C. Facts to be Determined

1. Determine any facts that will help you better analyze your company’s position. In other words, what questions do you need answered before you can proceed? (This part is simple: What else do you want/need to know that you don’t already know? Believe me when I say that there are many, many facts that you don’t know in this scenario. Don’t tell me things like you want to know what the confidentiality agreement included. In reality, you would already know that. You should ask specific questions here, not general questions.)

2. Explain how the identified facts will help establish the legal rights and/or obligations of the defendant in relation to your company. In other words, how would those facts reflect on the propriety and legality of the decisions that were made? (The unknown facts you identified above need to be connected to the case. Why do you want to know this information? How would you use it? How would it help or hurt your case?)

THIS IS WHERE MILESTONE ONE ENDS AND MILESTONE TWO BEGINS.

D. Application of the Law to the Facts: Using the precedents you have selected in case law, regulations, and substantive law, assess the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s arguments in court. Is it probable your company will win this legal dispute? (This is also very simple. Articulate the strengths and weaknesses of your company’s case for both the termination and contract issues. Use the laws and cases you selected and tell me how they help or hurt your case. Seldom will you find a supporting case that is 100% on point, that is, even if you find a case that helps it could also hurt your case. Be honest in your assessment here. No matter which company you defend, it’s not all roses for you. This should probably be the most detailed section of your memo.)