Today’s discussion is about the "Statute of Frauds". I have often heard from people that they believe that a contract needs to be in writing. As a general rule, a contract just needs to be an agreement by two parties that meet the legal requirements of offer, acceptance & consideration.

But back in 1677, the British parliament passed the "Statute of Frauds and Perjuries" and we’ve been calling it the Statute of Frauds to this day. What is the Statute of Frauds? It is a list of types of contracts that need to be in writing to be enforceable.

We introduce the three main legal categories of Intellectual Property. 1) Patents - designed to protect inventions. 2) Trademarks - designed to protect brands. 3) Copyrights - designed to protect writings, songs and illustrations. Our discussion includes basic registration tips.

Sexual harassment is prohibited in the workplace under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. There are essentially three behaviors that are prohibited. 1) Quid pro quo harassment; 2) Retaliation or 3) Hostile Work Environment.

An employer has the responsibility to ensure that a "Hostile Work Environment" doesn't take place. But what are the employers responsibilities when their employees have a bad break-up?

Two main things the company should do is 1) ensure that there is a written sexual harassment policy, and 2) make sure that managers and employees are trained to follow that policy. Most importantly, the company needs to consistently follow the procedures that have been put in place to address harassment.

Today we discuss the basics of estate planning. We introduce the concept of intestate succession, which is the state law which controls the distribution of your assets if you die without a Will. We also discuss what happens in probate after you die. The concept of Trusts is introduced with a brief introduction of the two main types of Trusts, revocable and irrevocable. We end with the reminder that your estate plan should be reviewed periodically, and at a minimum, once every five years.

We introduce the UCC, the Uniform Commercial Code, which creates rules for the creation of many commercial contracts. Article 2 of the UCC applies to the sale of goods, which covers a vast number of contracts. The UCC creates default rules, which apply when the parties fail to plan for certain contingencies in their contract. We give an example of when and how the UCC would apply to a typical commercial dealing.

We give you two basic negotiation tips. During this discussion, we note that the "mode" of negotiation is critical. We also introduce the negotiation tactic known as "bracketing".