For the benefit of all the people who cannot take her course, Prof. Connie Bagley has written this book that has the same title as her course (she teaches a quarter each at the Stanford and Harvard Business Schools). It is an extremely very well thought out and well written book. Throughout the book Prof. Bagley has kept in mind the reader's background and organized and written content in a way that will be of maximum benefit to the reader.This book is one of the best investments that any person can make. While almost everyone will benefit from this book, I feel this book will be indispensable to the following readers: 1. Any person in a Business Administration/Management role, especially Executives and Managers in large corporations, Investment Professionals and Management Consultants. 2. Professionals associated with legal matters who want a refresher and a quick reference book that covers key aspects of all the important laws. 3. Any person who wants to gain a knowledge of the legal environment, especially the environment in which business is conducted.
Unlike a law book intended for specialist lawyers, this book is readable by people who are not lawyers. After reading this book or using it as a reference one can get a good understanding of the legal process (how the entire legal system works) and several important areas of law such as Contracts, Torts, Product Liability, Intellectual Property, Labor, Environmental, Antitrust, Real Estate, Consumer protection, Securities, and International Business. The legal topics discussed are on the leading edge of business regulation. They include the World Trade Organization, employer liability for sexual harassment, compensation and liability act, and HIV in the workplace.
In keeping with the Internet age, Prof. Bagley analyzes the implications of the Internet and Information Technology to several laws (such as copyright law in the cyberspace), and also gives several Internet sources for the reader to conduct further research.
It is remarkable that the book covers each of the topics perfectly to the extent required - nothing more and nothing less. The book has around 1050 pages and the time invested in each page is worth the rewards.
As Prof. Bagley says, the purpose of the book is to provide you a good understanding of the legal system, how the laws work, removal of any fear of laws, how to avoid legal mistakes, how to protect yourself, when to take what legal action and, most importantly, make you smart enough to know when to go to your lawyer. You cannot expect to practice law after reading this book but you definitely will know when to seek legal help, and how to communicate effectively with your legal advisors.
Prof. Bagley has also written another book "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Law". If only every entrepreneur read this book before starting out, the number of failures caused by legal blunders will be close to zero.
Both her books are extremely very well thought out and well written. I was fortunate to get into Prof. Connie Bagley's high demand "Managers and the Legal Environment" course at Stanford Graduate School of Business. The course is an absolute gem of a course. While this course is a high demand course, her other course "Legal Challenges in Entrepreneurship" is usually multiply over subscribed with around 150 students wanting to get into a class of 66! Prof. Bagley is a wonderful teacher and an amazing person. Her class was a wonderful learning experience for me and I thank her for that. I'm sure that after reading the book you too will thank her for having written this book.
