Made for the Business Organizations course, whether your school calls it Business Organizations, Business Associations, Business Entities, or Corporations. One topic per season. The rules and the leading cases, explained in plain conversation you can listen to on the walk to class.
Episode 1 is free. Subscribe for every episode. Cancel anytime.
What the show covers
Business Organizations is the course where the doctrine piles up fast: agency, then partnerships, then LLCs, then the corporation and everything its directors owe. Each season of Cracking Business Law takes one of those topics and works through it the way a good study group would, with the rule, the reason for the rule, and the case your professor will ask about. Most episodes run about half an hour, which is a commute, a gym session, or one pass through a topic the night before class.
General partnerships: formation, control, duties, dissolution
Limited partnerships and the limited liability shield
Limited liability companies
Corporate formation and promoters
Corporate characteristics, veil piercing, capital structure, the board
The fiduciary duty of care and the business judgment rule
The duty of loyalty and corporate opportunities
Start with Episode 1, free
Season 1, Episode 1 covers how an agency relationship forms, including the ones nobody meant to create, and why that matters for every entity that comes later in the course. Anyone can listen; no subscription needed.
Season 1, Episode 1: Formation: The High Cost of Accidental Agency
Episode 1 is also on Spotify, where the show's free episodes are available to everyone.
Two more episodes are free as well: the Season 3 bonus, Who Pays for the Limited Liability Shield?, and Season 5, Episode 1, Birth of the Corporation (December 1).
Seasons and episodes
New episodes come out on Tuesdays and Fridays. Dates after today are release dates for upcoming episodes.
Season 1 Cracking Agency Law
1Formation: The High Cost of Accidental Agency FreeSep 11, 2026
2Contract Liability I: Actual and Apparent AuthoritySep 2026
3Contract Liability II: The Backup DoctrinesSep 2026
4Tort Liability: Vicarious Liability and the Independent Contractor LineSep 18, 2026
5Duties: What Agents and Principals Owe Each OtherSep 25, 2026
6Disclosure, Sub-Agents, and Ending the RelationshipOct 2, 2026
Season 2 Cracking Partnership Law
1Forming a General PartnershipOct 9, 2026
2Who Runs It and Who Can Bind ItOct 13, 2026
3What Partners Owe Each OtherOct 16, 2026
4Changes in Control: Transfers, New Partners, and EndingsOct 20, 2026
Season 3 Cracking Limited Partnership Law
BBonus: Who Pays for the Limited Liability Shield? FreeOct 23, 2026
1Building a Limited PartnershipOct 27, 2026
2What Partners Owe Each Other, and Who's in ChargeOct 30, 2026
3When Limited Partners Lose the ShieldNov 3, 2026
4Changes in Control and EndingsNov 6, 2026
Season 4 Cracking LLC Law
1The Rise of the LLC and How to Form OneNov 10, 2026
2Who Runs an LLC and What Members OweNov 13, 2026
3When Members Lose the ShieldNov 17, 2026
4Leaving and Ending an LLCNov 20, 2026
Season 5 Cracking Corporate Formation
1Birth of the Corporation FreeDec 1, 2026
2Promoters: Before the Corporation ExistsDec 4, 2026
3When Formation Goes WrongDec 8, 2026
Season 6 Cracking Corporate Characteristics
1The Corporate Shield and Piercing the VeilDec 11, 2026
2Who Gets Pierced, Who Gets Taxed, and How Corporations Raise MoneyDec 15, 2026
3Who Runs the CorporationDec 18, 2026
4How Far the Board's Power ReachesDec 22, 2026
Season 7 Cracking the Duty of Care
1The Business Judgment RuleDec 25, 2026
2Statutory Protections for DirectorsDec 29, 2026
3When Directors Fail to OverseeJan 1, 2027
4Uninformed and Irrational DecisionsJan 5, 2027
5Law-Breaking and the Obligation of Good FaithJan 8, 2027
Season 8 Cracking the Duty of Loyalty
Four episodes on corporate opportunities, ratification, and entire fairness, beginning January 12, 2027.
Subscribe
The show lives on Apple Podcasts. Open it there, listen to Episode 1, and tap Subscribe when you want the rest. A subscription unlocks every episode in every season, including the ones released while you're subscribed. Cancel anytime from your Apple subscriptions.
Professor Harris's books on the same subject, for readers who want the material on the page as well as in their ears.
Mastering Corporations and Other Business Entities
Second Edition. Carolina Academic Press, Mastering Series. A concise guide to the whole course: agency, partnerships, fiduciary duties, securities fraud, and changes in control. Written for students in the basic business law course and for lawyers who want a refresher.
Cases and Materials on Corporations and Other Business Entities: A Practical Approach
Aspen Casebook Series. A casebook with a practical, skills-driven approach: edited landmark cases, notes and questions, exercises drawn from real disputes, and roadmap diagrams for the hard cases.
Lee Harris is a professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he teaches contracts, business associations, and mergers and acquisitions. A corporate law scholar, he is the author of two business-law textbooks, Mastering Corporations and Other Business Entities and Cases and Materials on Corporations and Other Business Entities: A Practical Approach, and his research examines the connections between corporate institutions and politics.
He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Morehouse College. Before joining Ole Miss he spent thirteen years on the faculty of the University of Memphis School of Law, where he held the inaugural FedEx Professorship, and he has also taught at George Washington University Law School, Yale Law School, and Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. He practiced law with Baker Donelson and served two terms as Mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee.
Questions students ask
Is this for Business Organizations or Business Associations?
Both. Schools name the course differently (Business Organizations, Business Associations, Business Entities, Corporations), but the syllabus is largely the same, and the show follows that syllabus.
Which episodes are free?
Season 1, Episode 1; the Season 3 bonus episode; and Season 5, Episode 1. The rest of the show is by subscription on Apple Podcasts. Cancel anytime.
Can I use it for the bar exam?
The same topics show up on the bar exam (agency, partnerships, LLCs, corporations), and the episodes cover the rules and cases that get tested, so many listeners will find it a useful review.
How often do new episodes come out?
Tuesdays and Fridays.
Can I listen somewhere other than Apple Podcasts?
The free episodes are also on Spotify. The full show and the subscription are on Apple Podcasts, which works on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and in the Apple Podcasts web player.
