corporate law discussion
For this assignment, you will need to conduct legal research online and in the LEXIS/NEXIS database of the Rasmussen College Library.
Your managing partner has called you into his office and tells you that he has a confidential research matter that he needs you to complete. He advises that the law firm operates as a general partnership with four general partners. While there is a written agreement that identifies the four partners and states that they “shall share all profits and bear all expenses, equally,” the partnership agreement fails to discuss what happens if the partners cannot agree on an issue and there is no majority among the partners to decide a conflict.
One of the secretaries in the firm has come to the managing partner to complain about sexual harassment allegedly committed against her by another of the partners. The partner in question denies the allegations and has demanded that she be fired; the managing partner agrees with him. The other two partners, however, are afraid that if they fire this secretary, she may sue the firm in court, causing great embarrassment and bad publicity. They wish to negotiate a severance package and settlement agreement with the secretary in which she resigns in exchange for a sum of cash and execution of a confidential settlement agreement. The partner who was accused of the sexual harassment has gone ballistic over this suggestion and has threatened to leave the firm and take all of his clients. The two partners who have recommended settlement have made a similar threat in the event that the issue is not quickly, quietly, and amicably resolved.
For this assignment, you should use the state in which you currently reside to determine the applicable law. Your supervising partner has requested that you draft a memo that (1) explains what happens in the event the partners remain split 2-2 over what action to take, (2) explains the right of any partner to leave the firm and take clients with them, and (3) makes a recommendation for how the firm should proceed in this situation. Be sure to cite applicable statutes and case law in the memo.
Your responses to each discussion prompt must be approximately 200-250 words, unless otherwise specified.