Business Law In Popular Culture Assignment
This assignment is intended to provide you with a respite from the usual types of assignments
distributed in business courses and it is also intended to help you observe how law and business
interact in a real-world context.
Please select one of the following books or movies from the list below and enjoy the work at a time
that is most convenient for you. I am distributing this assignment during the first week of class so
that you can complete it during the time that works best with your schedule throughout the course
of the semester. Once you have done so, please write a response paper. Your response paper must
include the following content:
1) A brief summary of the plot (Note: Referencing other sources in order to clarify your understanding of the
plot is acceptable. However, cutting-and-pasting text directly from these sites into your paper without proper citation is
plagiarism. Cutting-and-pasting text into your paper and simply changing a few words without proper citation is
plagiarism. If you do this, you will receive a zero on the assignment.)
2) A description of the way in which law and business intersected in the work. How did the
content that we covered in this course appear in the work? With regards to the content,
please be as specific as possible. (Note: I realize that this may be particularly challenging. Please focus more
on the general types of laws at issue and the conduct which resulted in legal problems\issues rather than the specific
content of the law at issue.)
3) Your personal opinion of the work
4) Place yourself in the shoes of one of the main characters in the film. Would you have done
what they did? Why or why not?
Your paper should be no less than one typed, double-spaced page in length. If you particularly
enjoyed your movie or book and would like to write more, please feel free to do so!
Movies & Documentaries
A Civil Action (If you select this, please wait until after we have covered environmental law to write your analysis)
Blackfish (If you select this, please wait until after we have covered employment law to write your analysis)
Class Action
The Cove
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room
Erin Brockovich (If you select this, please wait until after we have covered environmental law to write your analysis)
Glengarry Glen Ross (this is one of Professor Joe’s favorite movies; upon seeing it for the first time in 2002, he
watched it 6 times in 7 days)
Hot Coffee
Inside Job (2010)
The Insider
Margin Call
Michael Clayton
North Country
Philadelphia (If you select this, please wait until after we have covered employment law to write your analysis)
Silkwood (If you select this, please wait until after we have covered environmental and employment law to write your
analysis)
Tapped (If you select this, please wait until after we have covered environmental law to write your analysis)
The People vs. Larry Flynt
The Rainmaker
The Social Network
The Verdict
The Wolf of Wall Street
Too Big To Fail
Wall Street (1987)
Books
The Appeal by John Grisham
Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill by Antonia Juhasz
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers by Lawrence
McDonald with Patrick Robinson
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
The King of Torts by John Grisham
The Litigators by John Grisham
Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill by Riki Ott
Straight Flush: The True Story of Six College Friends Who Dealt Their Way to a Billion-Dollar Online Poker
Empire--and How It All Came Crashing Down . . . by Ben Mezrich
Too Big To Fail by Andrew Russ Sorkin
The Rainmaker by John Grisham
The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
If none of these titles appeal to you, please feel free to suggest an alternative title to me and
I will review it. You may also suggest a play, a musical, or another cultural work that you believe
depicts the way in which law and business interact in a real-world context. This assignment is
intended to be enjoyable, so please don’t be shy about proposing an alternative cultural work that
may be more to your liking. You can proceed with completing this assignment with an alternative
title once I give you approval via email. Please do not complete this assignment using a work that is
not listed on this sheet unless I have first reviewed the work in order to make sure that it meets the
requirements for this assignment!
These works may be obtained at your local video store (there are still a few left in the Greater
Cleveland area!) or from your local public library. You can also obtain some of these works from the
Tri-C Library or from OhioLink.
Again, this assignment is intended to be fun and enjoyable, so don’t worry too much if you have
difficulty understanding the exact role that law played in the work of popular culture. Please do your
best to complete this assignment and let me know if you have any questions!
This assignment is worth 100 points and it is due by 11:59 PM on August 2, 2015. Please
submit it electronically via email.
Have fun!