Spier, Kathryn Business Strategy for Lawyers Spring 2016 course January 20, 2016 BUSINESS STRATEGY FOR LAWYERS SPRING 2016 Kathryn E. Spier Hauser 302 617-496-0019
[email protected] CLASS TIME This class meets on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:40 to 10:10 in Room WCC B010. This is a 3 credit course. OFFICE HOURS Professor Spier’s office hours are Thursdays from 10:00 to 11:45 or by appointment. COURSE DESCRIPTION This course presents the fundamentals of business strategy to a legal audience. The class sessions include both traditional lectures and business-school case discussions. The lecture topics and analytical frameworks are drawn from MBA curriculums at leading business schools. The cases are selected for both their business strategy content and their legal interest. The main course material is divided into four parts. The first part presents the basic frameworks for the analysis of strategy. The topics include economic and game theoretic approaches to strategy, competitive advantage and industry analysis. The second part is concerned with organizational and contractual responses to agency problems. Topics include pay-for- performance, corporate control, and the design of partnerships and other business associations. Spier, Kathryn Business Strategy for Lawyers Spring 2016 course The third part takes a broader view of business associations, considering the horizontal and vertical scope of the firm and the advantages of hybrid organizational forms such as franchising and joint ventures. The fourth part covers special topics in competitive strategy, including product differentiation, tacit collusion, facilitating practices, network externalities, market foreclosure, and innovation. This course is well-suited for students interested in economic analysis of the law with a strong business and industry focus.