This short book was written for students taking the first course in business organizations. Obviously, different law schools have different names for the course-"business associations," "business enterprises," "business organizations," "business structures," "corporations." And the differences in your students' background and interest in this course are even more obvious. It will soon be obvious to some of your students that they need the help of a basic student text. There are a number of good law-school books on corporations. Business Structures in a Nutshell has significantly fewer pages than other student texts but not less explanation. Professors Shade and Epstein emphasize explanation. Their objective is to have students say, "Now I understand that."
More specifically, the authors focus on (1) explaining the basic concepts that you have covered in class, (2) providing a business and practice context for those concepts, and (3) showing how the concepts are consistent (and sometimes inconsistent) with each other. Their book is organized around the life cycle of business-beginning with the choice of the form of business structure, ending with the choices of possible "end-games" for the business and its owners, and covering the common legal issues in running and growing a business. Business Structures in a Nutshell can help your students, whether they’ve come to your first class as poets or accountants.
