A podcast on Apple Podcasts

Cracking Business Law for Law Students

Made for the Business Organizations course, whether your school calls it Business Organizations, Business Associations, Business Entities, or Corporations. One topic per season. The rules and the leading cases, explained in plain conversation you can listen to on the walk to class.

Listen to Episode 1 free Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Episode 1 is free. Subscribe for every episode. Cancel anytime.

What the show covers

Business Organizations is the course where the doctrine piles up fast: agency, then partnerships, then LLCs, then the corporation and everything its directors owe. Twelve seasons cover the whole course. Each season of Cracking Business Law takes one of those topics and works through it the way a good study group would, with the rule, the reason for the rule, and the case your professor will ask about. Most episodes run about half an hour, which is a commute, a gym session, or one pass through a topic the night before class.

• Agency: formation, authority, vicarious liability, duties
• General partnerships: formation, control, duties, dissolution
• Limited partnerships and the limited liability shield
• Limited liability companies
• Corporate formation and promoters
• Corporate characteristics, veil piercing, capital structure, the board
• The fiduciary duty of care and the business judgment rule
• The duty of loyalty and corporate opportunities
• Shareholder rights: inspection, voting, derivative suits
• Securities fraud and insider trading
• The proxy system and shareholder proposals
• Takeovers, mergers, and defensive measures

Start with Episode 1, free

Season 1, Episode 1 covers how an agency relationship forms, including the ones nobody meant to create, and why that matters for every entity that comes later in the course. Anyone can listen; no subscription needed.

Episode 1 is also on Spotify, where the show's free episodes are available to everyone.

Two more episodes are free as well: the Season 3 bonus, Who Pays for the Limited Liability Shield?, and Season 5, Episode 1, Birth of the Corporation (December 1).

Seasons and episodes

New episodes come out on Tuesdays and Fridays. Dates after today are release dates for upcoming episodes.

Season 1 Cracking Agency Law

1. 1Formation: The High Cost of Accidental Agency FreeSep 11, 2026
2. 2Contract Liability I: Actual and Apparent AuthoritySep 2026
3. 3Contract Liability II: The Backup DoctrinesSep 2026
4. 4Tort Liability: Vicarious Liability and the Independent Contractor LineSep 18, 2026
5. 5Duties: What Agents and Principals Owe Each OtherSep 25, 2026
6. 6Disclosure, Sub-Agents, and Ending the RelationshipOct 2, 2026

Season 2 Cracking Partnership Law

1. 1Forming a General PartnershipOct 9, 2026
2. 2Who Runs It and Who Can Bind ItOct 13, 2026
3. 3What Partners Owe Each OtherOct 16, 2026
4. 4Changes in Control: Transfers, New Partners, and EndingsOct 20, 2026

Season 3 Cracking Limited Partnership Law

1. BBonus: Who Pays for the Limited Liability Shield? FreeOct 23, 2026
2. 1Building a Limited PartnershipOct 27, 2026
3. 2What Partners Owe Each Other, and Who's in ChargeOct 30, 2026
4. 3When Limited Partners Lose the ShieldNov 3, 2026
5. 4Changes in Control and EndingsNov 6, 2026

Season 4 Cracking LLC Law

1. 1The Rise of the LLC and How to Form OneNov 10, 2026
2. 2Who Runs an LLC and What Members OweNov 13, 2026
3. 3When Members Lose the ShieldNov 17, 2026
4. 4Leaving and Ending an LLCNov 20, 2026

Season 5 Cracking Corporate Formation

1. 1Birth of the Corporation FreeDec 1, 2026
2. 2Promoters: Before the Corporation ExistsDec 4, 2026
3. 3When Formation Goes WrongDec 8, 2026

Season 6 Cracking Corporate Characteristics

1. 1The Corporate Shield and Piercing the VeilDec 11, 2026
2. 2Who Gets Pierced, Who Gets Taxed, and How Corporations Raise MoneyDec 15, 2026
3. 3Who Runs the CorporationDec 18, 2026
4. 4How Far the Board's Power ReachesDec 22, 2026

Season 7 Cracking the Duty of Care

1. 1The Business Judgment RuleDec 25, 2026
2. 2Statutory Protections for DirectorsDec 29, 2026
3. 3When Directors Fail to OverseeJan 1, 2027
4. 4Uninformed and Irrational DecisionsJan 5, 2027
5. 5Law-Breaking and the Obligation of Good FaithJan 8, 2027

Season 8 Cracking the Duty of Loyalty

1. 1The Corporate Opportunity Doctrine and Guth v. LoftJan 12, 2027
2. 2When a Director May Keep an OpportunityJan 15, 2027
3. 3Ratifying a Self-Interested TransactionJan 19, 2027
4. 4Entire Fairness and the Limits of LoyaltyJan 22, 2027

Season 9 Cracking Shareholder Rights

Coming in 2027.

1. 1Inspecting the Books and Pillsbury v. HoneywellJan 26, 2027
2. 2The Right to Vote and the Rule Against InterferenceJan 29, 2027
3. 3Derivative Suits and the Demand RequirementFeb 2, 2027
4. 4Demand Futility and Special Litigation CommitteesFeb 5, 2027
5. 5Who Pays the LawyersFeb 9, 2027

Season 10 Cracking Securities Fraud

Coming in 2027.

1. 1What Counts as Securities FraudFeb 12, 2027
2. 2Reliance, Causation, and State of MindFeb 16, 2027
3. 3Insider Trading and the Abstain-or-Disclose RuleFeb 19, 2027
4. 4Tippees, Misappropriation, and the Limits of Insider TradingFeb 23, 2027

Season 11 Cracking the Proxy System

Coming in 2027.

1. 1How the Proxy System WorksFeb 26, 2027
2. 2Paying for a Proxy Fight and Proxy FraudMar 2, 2027
3. 3Shareholder ProposalsMar 5, 2027

Season 12 Cracking Takeovers

Coming in 2027. The series finale completes the course.

1. 1Takeovers and Dissenters' RightsMar 9, 2027
2. 2Mergers, Asset Sales, and Weinberger v. UOPMar 12, 2027
3. 3De Facto Mergers and Hostile BidsMar 16, 2027
4. 4Defensive Measures and UnocalMar 19, 2027
5. 5Revlon Duties and the End of the RoadMar 23, 2027

Subscribe

The show lives on Apple Podcasts. Open it there, listen to Episode 1, and tap Subscribe when you want the rest. A subscription unlocks every episode in every season, including the ones released while you're subscribed. Cancel anytime from your Apple subscriptions.

Buy the book

Professor Harris's books on the same subject, for readers who want the material on the page as well as in their ears.

About Professor Lee Harris

Lee Harris is a professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he teaches contracts, business associations, and mergers and acquisitions. A corporate law scholar, he is the author of two business-law textbooks, Mastering Corporations and Other Business Entities and Cases and Materials on Corporations and Other Business Entities: A Practical Approach, and his research examines the connections between corporate institutions and politics.

He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Morehouse College. Before joining Ole Miss he spent thirteen years on the faculty of the University of Memphis School of Law, where he held the inaugural FedEx Professorship, and he has also taught at George Washington University Law School, Yale Law School, and Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. He practiced law with Baker Donelson and served two terms as Mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee.

Questions students ask

Is this for Business Organizations or Business Associations?

Both. Schools name the course differently (Business Organizations, Business Associations, Business Entities, Corporations), but the syllabus is largely the same, and the show follows that syllabus.

Which episodes are free?

Season 1, Episode 1; the Season 3 bonus episode; and Season 5, Episode 1. The rest of the show is by subscription on Apple Podcasts. Cancel anytime.

Can I use it for the bar exam?

The same topics show up on the bar exam (agency, partnerships, LLCs, corporations), and the episodes cover the rules and cases that get tested, so many listeners will find it a useful review.

How often do new episodes come out?

Tuesdays and Fridays.

Can I listen somewhere other than Apple Podcasts?

The free episodes are also on Spotify. The full show and the subscription are on Apple Podcasts, which works on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and in the Apple Podcasts web player.