Going for the Intrinsic Gold: A Collaborative Quizbowl Quest to Motivate Students and to Showcase Business Law Courses

• Author: Sandra S. Benson
• Published date: 01 August 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2009.01063.x
• Date: 01 August 2009

Going for the Intrinsic Gold: A

Collaborative Quizbowl Quest to

Motivate Students and to Showcase

Business Law Courses

Sandra S. Benson

n

INTRODUCTION

‘‘Despite the numerous complaints about lawyers and frequent telling of

lawyer jokes, legal regulation need not restrain business; rather, when

done well, legal regulation advances business.’’

1

Similarly, when done

well, a legal studies course advances the students’ desire to grasp important

legal concepts that will be crucial to their future careers.

2

In the

r2009, Copyright the Author

Journal compilation rAcademy of Legal Studies in Business 2009

457

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 26, Issue 2, 457–484, Summer/Fall 2009

n

Assistant Professor of Business Law, Jennings A. Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee

State University. I am grateful to my colleagues who supported this researchin many ways. I

am especially grateful to my late husband, Jim Benson, who was instrumental in the design

and production of the initial QuizBowl competitions and in commenting on many article

drafts. I dedicate this to his loving memory.

1

Robert A. Prentice, The Case for Educating Legally-Aware Accountants,38AM.BUS. L.J. 597, 600

(2001) (discussing the importance of law in the accounting profession and the need for ac-

countants to critically apply the law).

2

Business people recognize that law is an integral part of their daily decision-making process.

For example, in a survey of almost 1000 business alumni from a regional southern university,

the alumni reported that they value business law as highly as any of their other courses, that

they frequently encounter the law they were taught as part of the business curriculum, and

that they are able to use their knowledge from the law courses taught in their business school.

John Tanneret al., A Survey of Business Alumni: Evidence of the Continuing Need for L aw Coursesin

Business Curricula,21J.L

EGAL STUD.EDUC. 203 (2004). The findings reported by Tanner and

his colleagues showed that contract law is by far the most useful of all business law topics, with

85 percent of the respondents stating that it was somewhat or very useful and 74.6 percent

stating that they encountered contracts either frequently or sometimes in their work. Like-

wise, negotiable instrument law was reported to be either very or somewhat useful by 70.3

percent of respondents and 68.2 percent reported that it was frequently or sometimes en-

countered. Product sales and warranty law had a 61.9 percent usefulness according to the

respondents and a frequency of encounter of 54.4 percent. Insurance law had 73.4 percent

aftermath of the financial, legal, and ethical crises of major corporations,

our society desperately needs its business people to recognize that the

law is an ally of businessFnot just a set of technical rules to be ignored

or flaunted.

3

In order to avoid far-reaching financial and global

disasters, we need employees in vital positions to be well trained

4

and

usefulness and a 61.5 percent frequency of encounter. Bankruptcy had 57.9 percent useful-

ness and a 45.5 percent frequency of encounter. Trust and estate law had a usefulness of 52

percent and a frequency of encounter of 50 percent.

3

Business professionals have a necessary but sometimes dysfunctional relationship with the

law. While laws are intended to provide stabilityand predictability to business, an incomplete

understanding of legal principles and consequences can make the law a stumbling block to

even the simplest of transactions. Cf. Tanner, supra note 2, at 203 (the failure to recognize the

importance of law and ethics in business led to catastrophe). Despite the importance of busi-

ness law, some business students never develop a working understanding of even fundamen-

tal legal principles. This lack of understanding is best evidenced by stories of catastrophes in

large and small companies; almost inevitably, those catastrophes arise from violations of the

law and result in substantial business losses. Consider, for example, the destruction of doc-

uments directed by Enron’s auditing firm, Arthur Andersen LLP, after the SEC announced its

investigation into financial improprieties at Enron. The criminal obstruction of justice charges

ended in disaster for the accounting firm from which the firm never recovered despite a

reversal of its conviction by the U.S. Supreme Court. See Memet C. Kocakulah et al., The

Present State of the Business Law Education of Accounting Students: The Business Law Professor’s

Perspective,26J.L

EGAL STUD.EDUC. 137, 151–52 (2009). As another example, consider the

1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez supertanker, which spilled millions of gallons of crude

oil into Prince William Sound off the Alaskan coast. Litigation has ensued for almost two

decades. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the issue of whether the $2.5 billion pu-

nitive damages award to commercial fishermen was permissible under federal maritime law.

Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, 128 S. Ct. 2605 (2008). The fishermen alleged that Exxon

officials were aware of several drinking incidents, including Captain Hazelwood’s drinking

aboard ship, but chose to ignore the problem. See Brief of Respondents at 5–9, Exxon Shipping

Co., 128 S. Ct. 2605 (2008) (No. 07-219), 2008 WL 194284. The jury found both Exxon and

Hazelwood reckless and awarded punitive damages in the amount of $5,000 against Hazel-

wood and $5 billion against Exxon to the fishermen. Exxon Shipping Co., 128 S. Ct. at 2614.

The Ninth Circuit ultimately remitted the punitive award against Exxon to $2.5 billion. While

the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the $2.5 billion punitive damage award, holding that the

amount should be limited to the amount of compensatory damages ($287 million), the de-

cision to overlook Captain Hazelwood’s relapse and allow him to commanda supertanker was

much more costly than this one lawsuit: Exxon has spent more than $2 billion in cleanup

efforts; paid criminal fines and restitution of $125 million; and settled state, federal, and other

private party claims of more than $1 billion. Id. at 2612–14.

4

A study by Professors Gillett and Uddin tested CFO intentions for fraudulent financial re-

porting. Peter R. Gillett & Nancy Uddin, CFO Intentions of Fraudulent Financial Reporting,24

AUDITING: A J. PRAC.&THEORY at 55 (May 2005). Gillett and Uddin concluded that making

managers aware of the negative effects of fraudulent reporting and strong training could be

helpful in creating a change in management perceptions and in reducing fraud. Id. at 73.

458 Vol. 26 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education