Prerequisites: RCC*. This course provides an introduction to business associations. Employers and business entities, whether sole proprietorships, partnerships, or large corporations, utilize agents-- especially employees -- to effectuate their business objectives. Agency relationships can be formed intentionally or inadvertently, but regardless how they originate, the law imposes strict duties of conduct on both agents and their principals, and exacts severe penalties for their breach. The course examines the law of agency closely, including vicarious liability for wrongs of another and authority to bind another by assent or representation. Second, the course focuses on the law governing partnerships and addresses the complex intersection of agency and partnership law (i.e., the legal consequences of partners simultaneously being agents for the partnership as well as principals). Because the Uniform Partnership Acts impose numerous legal and economic risks for partners and partnerships, many business entities have reorganized to limit their liability consistent with the structures newly created by state statute, e.g., as a limited liability partnership or limited liability company. These diverse new statutory options for business organization constitute the final focus of the course. Required for the Business Law concentration.