Legal Management the Legal Issues

Legal Management

The Legal Issues of Management: Case Scenarios

Chapter 2-Case #1: The scenario described by the case in question offers a clear-cut case of sexual harassment. An individual who has succeeded on the strength of her professional merits is here being objectified and exploited on the basis of her own desire for advancement. This is a particularly inappropriate gesture insofar as it pins Bancroft's ambition for professional growth to her willingness to be objectified thusly. This creates a working atmosphere in which Bancroft must defend her professional integrity at the risk of her own career. That she has been placed in this position is particularly troubling as little can be done on her behalf to avoid confrontation short of simply complying with the unreasonable requests of her superior.

As the confrontation has already been created, it seems that Bancroft has little recourse but to seek mediation through the Human Resources department. Indeed, her only option in this scenario is to politely refuse her employer's requests on the grounds that the request has made her uncomfortable. Thereafter, a formal complaint must be filed which outlines the nature of the request and her personal perception on how this has created an inherently hostile working environment.

With respect to the role of Human Resources, any HR personnel which might have been in earshot of this conversation would have a responsibility both of confronting the offending party and of using this as an opportunity to engage a process of formal sensitivity and ethics training. Further, investigation should be conducted to determine if other members of the firm have been made to feel uncomfortable in the ways that confronted Bancroft and, if a pattern or culture of sexual hostility can be established, dismissal of critical personnel such as the subject of Bancroft's complaint might be appropriate.

Chapter 3-Case #5:

Boomer's case is a useful reference point for consumers who would desire to know their rights with respect to service contracts with major corporate service providers. Here, the customer and litigant individual has accepted the terms of a contract with at&T through his own inaction. According to the case scenario, Boomer had been provided with terms that were clearly stated indicating that his long-distance rates would be going up and that he had the right to contest these changes in his terms. Moreover, Boomer has been explicitly presented with the claim that any such contest would be resolved by a legally binding arbitrator rather than through a full-fledged process of civil litigation.

As we review the language used in a legal precedent invoking Boomer's case, that of Ragan and Mangiariacino v. at&T, it becomes clear that Boomer is in all regards subject to compliance with the terminology used in this statement. As the statement had been issued in direct correspondence with already agreed upon terms which had brought him into contract with the service in question, the precedent here cited denotes that Boomer's legal rights are shaped by these terms. Accordingly, the case cited here notes "in Boomer v. at&T Corp., 309 F.3d 404, 415 (7th Cir. 2002), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, applying Illinois law to facts identical to those in the case at bar, held that where an offeree takes the benefits of offered services with a reasonable opportunity to reject them and a reason to know that they were offered with the expectation of compensation, his silence and inaction operates as an acceptance of the offer." (Matoesian, 1) This denotes that in the case of Boomer, participation in a class-action suit over high long-distance prices will not be heard in a court of law.

Chapter 4-Case #3: The case scenario in question seems to invoke inappropriately the question of state's rights vs. those of the federal government. But the assessment delivered in the case of Granholm v. Heald actually seems to imply that this focus is misdirected. In a case where small wineries with limited means to obtain local distribution have attempted to broader their reach through catalogue and web-based sales, several states have invoked the language surrounding the repealing of prohibition (through the 21st Amendment) in order to oppose these efforts. The opinion outlined by Supreme Court Justice Kennedy in a 5-4 majority decision would strike down such restrictions.

Kennedy's opinion would find that "these schemes allow in-state, but not out-of-state, wineries to make direct sales to consumers. This differential treatment explicitly discriminates against interstate commerce by limiting the emerging and significant direct-sale business." (Kennedy, 1) in other words, the opinion of the Supreme Court was that laws obstructing these efforts at interstate commerce were actually inconsistent with the Constitution's intentions. The value of interstate commerce and the spirit in which this is pursued appear both as central themes in the opinion, reinforcing the view that this seems to favor larger liquor, wine and spirits operations with the capacity to work with wholesale distributors in any context. The creation of legal obstacles to practices specific to small-business enterprises would be appropriately characterized here as a pointed attack on their opportunities as contrast those of powerful national brands. This is clearly a philosophical point of contrast from the implications of the Constitution where economic opportunity is concerned.

Chapter 5-Case #2: By vesting trust in the representation of its services and products in any number of independently licensed business partners, IBM has taken on some degree of liability for the ability and honesty reflected by said business partners in their effort to market IBM-labeled commodities. However, the burden of proving that IBM has chosen to represent itself through any specific business partner is placed decidedly on the claimant.