Ms Lisa Christo 
Telephone: 0405 286 586
Email: lisa@ndalaw.com.au
Course Website: www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au

Lecturer’s Biography

As well as lecturing in "Business Law" for the MBA program, Lisa facilitates the "Directors Duties" and "Tax for commercial transactions" in the Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice operated by the University of Adelaide in partnership with The Law Society of South Australia. 

Lisa practices in tax and superannuation law, commercial law and estate planning as an associate director at a boutique commercial law firm. She has previously served on the board of Crime Stoppers South Australia Incorporated and has recently graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is a member of the Law Society of South Australia, Tax Institute of Australia, Family Business Australia and AICD.

Lisa has a passion for assisting clients get all their legal affairs in order. She loves deciphering complex tax issues into plain English and taking the stress out of making succession planning decisions for individuals, SMEs and family businesses.

In 2021, Lisa won the Australasian Law Awards ‘Rising Star’ Award and the Behind Closed Doors ‘NFP Emerging Leaders’ Scholarship. She has been nominated as Senior Associate of the Year at the Australian Law Awards and is also a national finalist in the Lawyers Weekly ’30 under 30’ awards in the areas of commercial law and tax law.

Qualifications
Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, College of Law (2015)
Bachelor of Laws, The University of Adelaide (2014)
Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), The University of Adelaide (2013).

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:
1. Discuss the Australian legal system and how it applies to regulate business.
2. Identify and discuss the application of statute law and Common Law relevant to business.
3. Apply basic principles of business law in analysing business decisions.
4. Identify legal business issues and legal risks and recommend actions to manage them.

Course Aims
The course aims to make managers more aware of the circumstances in which the law impacts on their business environment and their decisions as managers, and to give an awareness of how legal risks can be minimised. The technical areas of the law that are dealt with will be approached with a management emphasis. It is not the aim of the course to enable managers to make their own final legal decisions or to give legal advice to others. Rather, the course will help managers to identify potential legal problems at an early stage and recognise situations when professional legal advice should be sought.

Textbook

Giancaspro, M., Golding, G., Nosworthy, B., Brown, D., Viven-Wilksch, J., Wawryk, A., … Zito, P. (2023). Contemporary Australian Business Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Useful reference books are:
Turner & Trone, Australian Commercial Law 31st ed, Thomson Reuter.
Miles & Dowler, A Guide to Business Law 22nd ed, Thomson Reuter

Useful Websites:
www.austlii.edu.au – Australian legislation and cases.
www.legislation.gov.au – Commonwealth legislation.
www.legislation.sa.gov.au/index.aspx – South Australian legislation
www.aph.gov.au – Commonwealth Parliament of Australia.
www.parliament.sa.gov.au – Parliament of South Australia.
www.accc.gov.au – Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
www.asic.gov.au – Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
www.ipaustralia.gov.au – IP Australia.

The Course Materials consisting of Topic Notes, the PowerPoint slides used in classes and other material for the course, such as Case Study Questions, will be made available on MyUni.

The MBA program is largely undertaken through face-to-face class sessions to facilitate interactions between the lecturing staff and fellow students.  Accordingly there is an expectation that you will attend all of the scheduled classes.  If work commitments, illness or other circumstances require you to be absent from some lectures, please inform your lecturer in advance by either phone or email so that you may discuss the topic(s) to be covered in the class session and the tasks you need to complete before the next session.  It is your responsibility to
make arrangements with the lecturer or other students to catch up on information discussed in class, however, it is unlikely that lecturers will be able to repeat a class to cover your absence.

Please note that if you have not attended at least 80% of the class sessions for a course you will forgo your right, on academic grounds, to any supplementary assessment opportunities.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

Weekly classes are 3 hours long.  You can expect to spend about the same amount of time preparing for each class.  Assignments and exam preparation will demand additional concentrated periods of non-classroom study, on your own or with your allocated student group.  As a rough indication, you could expect to spend in the order of 120 hours of study time to complete the course, of which 36 hours would be in class.

Topics

1. Australian Legal System
2. Law of Torts
3. Business Structures
4. Formation and Validity of Contracts
5. Parties and Terms of Contracts
6. Competition and Consumer Law
7. Secured Transactions
8. Corporate Ethics and Directors Duties
9. Employment Law
10. Intellectual Property Law
11. Business Taxation Law

In each topic, emphasis will be placed on identifying the legal duties that apply to a manager and the legal liabilities that may be attracted by their actions.

 

Assessment	Percentage of Total Mark	Learning Outcome Assessed
2x Online Tests	20%	1, 2 and 3
Assignment 1	40%	1, 2, 3 and 4
Assignment 2	40%	1, 2, 3 and 4

In addition to achieving a course mark of at least 50%, students need to attain an average of 50% across all the individually assessed items, considered as a whole, to pass the course.

Online Tests

The Online Tests are designed to test your understanding of the law being covered in the course.  Each of the Online Tests consists of 15 multiple choice questions and students must answer all questions in 45 minutes, in a single sitting.

Assignment

This will be written essay of a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding footnotes) on a topic to be made available by the lecturer. It is an individual assignment and not a group one. The assignment will be due on a date to be advised.

Examination

In addition to testing a student’s understanding of the law covered in the course and a student’s ability to identify legal issues and give an answer to a problem that is supported by the law, the exam will also test a student’s knowledge of how legal risks can be better managed.

The examination will be online and 3 hours in duration (plus a further 10 minutes reading time) and will be held in week 13. It will be “open-book” and students are allowed to use any written material except University of Adelaide Library books.

Access to examples of previous assessment

Examples of previous assessment  will be provided on MyUni during the course and in classes.

Presentation of Assignments
1. Students must retain a copy of all assignments submitted.

2. Students must attach an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’, which is signed and dated before submission.

3. Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the University’s policy on plagiarism.



Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details
A copy of the Communication Skills Guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can be downloaded from:

 https://www.adelaide.edu.au/professions/current-students/downloads-forms/Communications-Skills-Guide.pdf

This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc. 

In preparing any written piece of assessment for your postgraduate studies it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.)

The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide.

Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 4 of the Communication Skills Guide.



Late Assignment Submission
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits.

 An assignment extension request based on illness or on exceptional personal circumstances must include the "Supporting Statement / Certification Form" that is part of the Supplementary Assessment application available at:

https://www.adelaide.edu.au/student/exams/modified-arrangements-for-coursework-assessment

Students applying for an extension based on medical reasons must visit their medical practitioner, with that approved University form, and have the medical practitioner complete it. A normal doctor's certificate will not be accepted.

 
A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.



Return of Assignments
Lecturers aim to mark and return assignments to students within two (2) weeks of the due date with written feedback. Students are responsible for collecting their marked assignments from either their tutorials or lectures. If assignments are not collected after two (2) weeks, the assignments will be available at the Student Hub for two (2) weeks. The remaining assignments will only be posted out to the students, if the correct mailing addresses are on the assignments.