Stories from Camp Automotive: Communicating the Importance of Family Dynamics to Corporation Law Students
Georgia Law Review, March 2000
21 Pages Posted: 3 Jan 2000 Last revised: 7 Dec 2012
Abstract
Law professors in the US are relatively uniform in the substantive areas they cover in the basic Corporations course. One area that has been neglected in both the study and teaching of Corporate law is the dynamics of family interaction, sometimes called family process. I refer to these patterns of interaction as abnorms. These abnorms run through many cases in the Corporations casebooks.
Law professors should identify and bring these family dynamics into the Corporations classroom for at least three reasons. First, family process can serve as an organizing principle for a great many cases. Second, judges increasingly use family dynamics in their Corporate law decisions. Finally, law students, whether intending to practice on Wall Street or Main Street, need to understand family process to properly counsel their clients.
This article suggests several techniques to overcome the barriers to bringing family dynamics into the Corporations classroom. The center of these suggestions is a discussion of Camp Automotive, Inc., a family business in Spokane, Washington. Camp Automotive was the subject of a Wall St. Journal article and much information can also be found on EDGAR.
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