Scenario
You have been hired by Jaden and Amari Woods as a legal assistant in light of the legal issues their company is facing. They would like you to develop a legal memorandum to help the company move forward.
Mountain Top View Inc.: Company History
Jaden and Amari are siblings from a family that values connecting with nature to promote mental health and wellness. Jaden has paraplegia, which impacts the use of his lower body, and he uses a motorized wheelchair. When he was younger, Jaden’s family had difficulty finding outdoor equipment that would help him be included in their outings. Amari and he often spent time creating accessible equipment. A few years ago, based on these experiences, Jaden and Amari used savings to start a small outdoor equipment business called Mountain Top View Inc. that creates inclusive, affordable, and accessible equipment. They value creating a supportive atmosphere for all their customers and their diverse abilities. The company has expanded so rapidly over the past few years that it is now a publicly traded corporation.
The corporate world has been challenging for Jaden and Amari to adapt to. As the company does a lot of business online, technology use and functionality has been a major challenge. Jaden and Amari recently hired a new chief information officer (CIO), Stefan, to manage the website and technology aspects. The financial element was also a challenge, so Jaden and Amari recently hired Leon as their chief financial officer (CFO) to manage financial aspects.
One morning when Jaden comes in, he hears from his CIO that the customer information database was hacked. This data breach impacted customers who ordered products online. Many customers had their names, addresses, and phone numbers stolen. Jaden and Amari value every customer as if they are family—after all, they started as a family business to help everyone be a part of outdoor adventures. They know that they should inform their customers, but they are also concerned about the potential of bad publicity associated with this issue.
One afternoon, Stefan learns of a confidential merger that is taking place soon between Mountain Top View Inc. and a major chain outdoor company. Knowing that the stock price will increase significantly, he tells Leon about the merger over lunch and encourages him to purchase shares before information about the merger goes public. Both Stefan and Leon buy 2,000 shares in company stock the day before the merger. The janitor overhears them discussing the scheme and realizes they used non-public, confidential information about the company and the merger to buy shares. He alerts the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing the men of insider trading.
In addition, a lawsuit has been filed for negligence and products liability against Mountain Top View Inc. for damages. A customer was injured and has medical bills from back fractures after rock climbing while using equipment from Mountain Top View Inc. He claims that the line snapped and caused him to fall, and that his injuries were due to faulty equipment.
Directions
- Legal Issues: As they know that their knowledge of legal issues is limited, Jaden and Amari asked that you begin by providing some basic information about the legal issues that the company faces.
- Describe the legal issues related to tort law and the process for handling tort law issues in court for informing the company owners about the scope of the issues facing their business. In your response, be sure to identify how negligence and product liability apply to the facts presented in the scenario to identify possible outcomes.
- Describe legal issues related to criminal law and the process for handling the criminal law issues in court for informing the company owners about the scope of the issues facing their business. In your response, be sure to identify the relevant law for insider trading and apply it to the facts presented in the scenario to identify possible outcomes.
- Describe legal issues that businesses should be aware of, focusing especially on issues related to technology and data breaches. Provide specific examples of what happened, and how the issues could be handled better in the future.
- Ethical Issues: Next, describe ethical issues that occurred in the scenario for informing Jaden and Amari of issues they should be aware of and should address within their company.
- Describe ethical issues that the company is encountering. Provide specific examples of what happened and how the issues could be handled better in the future. Include the following in your description:
- What ethical issues occurred in the company scenario, and how do they differ from legal issues?
- What measures could the company take in order to follow up after the data breach and to better safeguard customer information?
- Discuss strengths and weaknesses of ethical tests and theories for identifying potential gaps in the company’s ethical practices for future initiatives.
- Describe ethical issues that the company is encountering. Provide specific examples of what happened and how the issues could be handled better in the future. Include the following in your description:
- Recommendations: Lastly, Jaden and Amari would like you to provide recommendations related to corporate responsibility and assessing company ethics. Your recommendations will support them in identifying best practices to move their company forward.
- Recommend corporate responsibility best practices that will help the company move forward in its future initiatives. In your recommendation, discuss how the recommended practices would help the company prevent legal and ethical issues from occurring in the future.
- Recommend an ethical theory that the company might consider adapting for informing its future operations. In your recommendation, address why the recommended theory would be a good approach for the company. Discuss how the theory would assist the company with handling advancements in technology as the company moves forward.
What to Submit
Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:
Legal Memorandum
A legal memorandum can be used to investigate and describe how legal and ethical issues apply to a situation(s). It allows you to present that information, along with recommendations, in a clear and direct way for a reader. Your legal memorandum should outline legal and ethical issues for the company and make recommendations to help the company move forward with best practices for ethical practices. The legal memorandum should be 2 to 4 pages in length.
Be sure to include the following header when you submit your legal memorandum:
TO: Jaden and Amari Woods FROM: <Your Name> DATE: <Date submitted> RE: Mountain Top View Inc. Case
Supporting Materials
The following resource(s) may help support your work on the project:
Citation Help Need help citing your sources? Use the CfA Citation Guide and Citation Maker.
Legal Memo Help Need more information on legal memos? Use the FAQ page from the Shapiro Library.
Success Tips This document provides quick answers to some of the common questions students have about this project.0