The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Needs to Know about the Law

Business managers who don't understand the legal playing field risk running afoul of the law and creating unnecessary and expensive problems. Ignorance can also rob companies of opportunities for a competitive edge.

The Business Guide to Legal Literacy bridges the gap between law and business by translating legalese into language that makes business sense and offers a new way to think about the law—as a useful business tool. The book is filled with dozens of real-life examples that illustrate a step-by-step process for avoiding lawsuits and transforming potential business legal problems that threaten growth and profitability into opportunities for:

• Building stronger business relationships
• Delivering sustainable shareholder value
• Improving competitive advantage
• Embedding compliance into the corporate culture to achieve organizational excellence

This much-needed resource makes the connection between law, business, decision-making psychology, quality management, organizational change, and leadership, and shows how these disciplines influence the company's legal risk profile. It tackles legal literacy on both the employee and organizational levels and identifies the infrastructure needed to support legal literacy and promote effective communications throughout the organization.

This groundbreaking book concludes with an impressive Appendix filled with reference tools for the line manager, including a legal primer, lessons from Sarbanes-Oxley, and an inside look at the federal guidelines used by prosecutors to decide whether to criminally indict a company or its management.

Hasl-Kelchner, a corporate lawyer, presents a manual for business executives and managers on the law, how to avoid litigation, how to identify potential legal problems and make good decisions, and communication and ethical leadership. Throughout the book, she uses examples from businesses with legal issues, such as Enron and Ford. Appendices contain a reference guide to legal concepts, a discussion of lessons learned from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and excerpts from the Act. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Use the law for competitive advantage and avoid costly mistakes

Based on the author’ s 25 years of legal and business experience, and with dozens of actual legal and business case studies, The Business Guide to Legal Literacy is not intended to be an exhaustive encyclopedia; its mission is to instill a strategic sense of legal literacy in every manager. Just as the " numbers" are no longer just for accountants, legal concepts are not just for lawyers– and ignorance of the law is no excuse. It offers practical, real-world advice– not theory– tailoring its message to the frontline manager, illustrated with hundreds of examples from real cases.

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner (Chapel Hill, NC) is a former adjunct professor at the Duke University Fuqua School of Management. She is currently Associate General Counsel for trademark infringement at Lorillard Tobacco Company.

Based on the author's 25 years of legal and business experience, and with dozens of actual legal and business case studies, The Business Guide to Legal Literacy is not intended to be an exhaustive encyclopedia; its mission is to instill a strategic sense of legal literacy in every manager. Just as the "numbers" are no longer just for accountants, legal concepts are not just for lawyers--and ignorance of the law is no excuse. It offers practical, real-world advice--not theory--tailoring its message to the frontline manager, illustrated with hundreds of examples from real cases.

Praise for The Business Guide to Legal Literacy

"Anyone who is serious about business ethics needs to understand the law. Hasl-Kelchner provides a clear roadmap for business people to understand how to do the right thing."

—Steve Odland, chairman and CEO, Office Depot, and chairman, Business Roundtable Corporate Governance Task Force

"At last, a book that demystifies the relationship between business and the law. I found it easy to read and full of real-life examples. The Business Guide to Legal Literacy should be required reading for every business manager."

—Gary Krall, chief operations officer, BioSignia, Inc.

"As a small business owner without corporate counsel I've used Hanna's rubrics to avoid pitfalls and maximize opportunities. Her use of cases, related conversationally instead of legalistically, drives the legal points deep into long-term memory."

—Tamela M. Rich, managing member, Thor Industrial Services, LLC

"Hanna Hasl-Kelchner has developed a straightforward and easily understandable approach to legal problems in the business context. She answers a number of critical questions.This work is successful because, in a number of unique and creative ways, it bridges the communication gap that sometimes exists between lawyers and their corporate clients."

—Larry D. Thompson, senior vice president government affairs, general counsel and secretary, PepsiCo, Inc., and former deputy general counsel, U.S. Department of Justice

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner is a corporate lawyer whose career spans private, government, and in-house practice. She is a former adjunct professor at top-ranked Duke University Fuqua School of Business where she taught Legal Leverage to executive MBA students. She is currently associate general counsel and national counsel for trademark enforcement at Lorillard Tobacco Company. A frequent guest speaker on the subject of preventive law, she is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Ethics Education. She received her law degree from Rutgers University and her MBA from Cornell University.

Preface.

PART ONE: HOW TO CREATE A WINNING LEGAL ATTITUDE.

1 The Need for a Paradigm Shift.

2 How Behavioral Economics Influences Decision Making.

3 How Latent Legal Liabilities Escalate the Cost of Doing Business.

4 How Legal Leverage Creates Value and Competitive Advantage.

PART TWO: HOW TO ACHIEVE LEGAL LEVERAGE: DEVELOPING TOOLS TO MINIMIZE RISK AND MAXIMIZE OPPORTUNITY.

5 How to Integrate Legal Literacy into the Enterprise Value Chain: Who Needs to Know What.

6 How Miscommunications Create Liabilities: Avoiding Smoking Guns.

7 How to Keep the Wheels On: Managing and Mediating Expectations.

8 How to Transform Legal Obstacles into Strategic Opportunities: The Role of Good Decision Making.

PART THREE: HOW TO MAINTAIN LEGAL LEVERAGE: DEVELOPING A SUPPORTIVE CORPORATE CULTURE.

9 How to Stay On Course: The Role of Continuous Learning and Knowledge Management.

10 How to Stay In Synch: The Role of Lawyers.

11 How to Stay On Message: The Role of Communications.

12 How to Stay Centered: The Role of Ethical Leadership.

Epilogue: Winning from the Beginning.

Appendix A: Legal Literacy Toolkit Chart.

Appendix B: The ABCs of Legal Literacy.

1. International Law.

2. Contracts.

3. Product Liability.

4. Employment.

5. Unfair Competition.

6. Intellectual Property.

Appendix C: The Lessons of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Appendix D: Excerpts from Federal Organizational Sentencing Guidelines, 2004.

Appendix E: Excerpts from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: Table of Contents.

Appendix F: United States Attorneys’ Manual: The Thompson Memo.

Bibliography.

Acknowledgments.

The Author.

Index.