Original Work Progress Assessment

I. INTRODUCTION & STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

In order to better understand the field of corporate law, I will be writing a series of
mock contracts through the guidance of my mentor, Mr. William John Ouska. My original
work, if properly executed, will allow me to understand whether or not this field is the right
choice for me, as well as have a glimpse of what my future will look like. I will also be able to
have a feel for what the writing style is like. The mock contracts that I will be writing are 1)
an employment contract, 2) an asset purchase agreement, and 3) a will. This process will
allow my the understand and learn how a contract is written, which important clauses are
incorporated when and where, as well as the level of professionalism of the writing style that
these agreement need to be written in.

The process I will be carrying out in order to ensure the quality of these contracts is
to write my fact base and then concurrently write drafts and have my mentor, Mr. William
John Ouska look over them. That way I can ensure that the contracts are being fact checked
as well as quality controlled.

II. CURRENT POINT IN PROGRESS

A. PROGRESS

For the purpose of this assignment, I was originally going to include two different
parts: 1) a research essay and 2) a mock contract, which most likely would have been an
employment contract. The overall theme of the research essay was going to be based off of
jury bias towards corporations, and sub topics would include 1) why this type of prejudice
exists, 2) in which parts of the country, based off of political views, would the jury more in
favor or against the corporation, and 3) what attorneys can do to avoid this type of negative
feelings towards companies. However, this proved difficult to write a fully developed paper
on due to the idea of a mistrial. If jury bias can be proven in court, the case must be
reopened with a set of new people in order to establish justice for both sides, between the
company and whomever they are going up against. Due to this, there is only speculation of
this type of jury bias to exist, but not enough statistics. From there, I decided to change my
topic to how a poor economy affects law firms and a subsection would include what
attorneys/owners could do in order to make sure that they were not as negatively affected as
they could have been. When I first started to research, there was information which led me
to have the impression that this was a viable topic to write a paper on. However, the next
day, when I started to look for more statistics, I hit the same misfortune as the first topic.
There was simply not enough information to write a lengthy and quality essay without pure
speculation. As of Monday, March 4, 2019, I have changed my original work from writing
one research essay and one mock contract to a series of agreements.

After with meeting up with my teacher, Mr. Matthew V. Pirtle, and my mentor, Mr.
William John Ouska, I have come to the conclusion that writing a research paper will be
difficult a process due to the lack existing statistics. Additionally, due to the lack of time, I
can not conduct the research myself. Thus, as mentioned previously, the next best option
was to write a series of contracts rather than a single one. However this decision was made
pretty recently, March 4, 2019, and a result I have been unable to make an extensive amount
of progress in the writing of my contracts. However, I have been able to successfully write a
fact base to write these contracts for a single person. My mentor, Mr. William John Ouska,
has advised me to write a standard description of a person and 1) living standards, 2) ideal
qualitie, and 3) their family. Thus, I am currently in the process of drafting a set of facts for a
fake person. My next step would be to have my mentor look over this base and confirm
whether or not it is realistic enough and whether or not I can write a series of contracts
based off them. Under section B is the list of what I have come up with thus far.

Additionally, I have been looking through a series of agreements that my mentor, Mr.
William John Ouska, has written and gone over with me as well as several examples that
have been posted online. There are many websites that create a document for an individual
as long as they enter in their information. This is similar to a fill in the blank example, where
the individual writes down the necessary facts in the required areas and clauses. Through
this I have been able to understand the writing style that is necessary when writing a
contract in order to maintain a level of professionalism as well as which clauses are included
and when they are. This will help me when I start drafting.

B. FACT BASE

Individual:​ Benjamin Raj Smith (54)

Spouse:​ Michelle Julie Brown (52)
Salary:​ $150,000
Employment​: ABC Company
Kids:
(1) Son: ​Mason Drake Smith (26)
(2) Daughter: ​Clara Isabel Smith (24)
(3) Son:​ Alexander James Smith (22)
Pets:
(1) Cat:​ Salt
 (2) Cat: ​Pepper
Assets:
(1) House:​ $400,000
(2) 401 K:​ $20,000
(3) Bank Accounts: ​$8,000
Investments:
(1) Stocks: ​$80,000
(2) Real Estate:​ $20,000
(3) Clothing Store: ​Clothes For You
Purchase:
(1) Clothes For You:​ $60,000
(a) Merchandise included
Will:
(1) All assets, pets, and investments will be inherited by the spouse,
Michelle Julie Brown in the event that Benjamin Raj Smith has passed
(2) If the spouse, Michelle Julie Brown has also passed, then:
(a) Eldest son, Mason Drake Smith will be given custody over both
cats and the house
(b) The daughter, Clara Isabel Smith will inherit the 401 K as well
as all stocks
(c) Youngest Son, Alexander James Smith will inherit the Real
Estate Property, all bank accounts, and Clothes For You

III. CHECKPOINTS

A. PROGRESS

As mentioned previously, the only steps I have completed thus far is creating a part of
my fact base due to focusing on my research paper. Now that has been dropped completely, I
can focus on writing the contracts. My next step is to have my mentor check the fact base
and continue with the writing the drafts.

B. NEXT STEPS

Due to changing my original work, I have come up with a new list of goals and
checkpoints to complete before May. They are as listed below:

(1) March 11, 2019

(a) Finish writing fact base and send to mentor to check over the numbers
 (2) March 15, 2019 - Mentor visit scheduled
(a) Complete Employment contract draft and have mentor read over
(b) Begin Asset-Purchase agreement
(c) Go over the specific details on how to write a will
(3) March 22, 2019
(a) Fix what mentor said to do on Employment contract draft
(b) Finish Asset-Purchase contract draft
(4) March 29, 2019
(a) Have mentor look over both contracts
(b) Revise and edit the errors
(c) If everything is ready, proceed to the Will
(i) If not, continue to revise and edit as necessary

Above is the list of things I would like to have done by the end of the month March
2019. I would like to send my fact base to my mentor, Mr. William John Ouska, in order to
make sure the set is realistic and close to what I would encounter in the real world.
Additionally, I would like to have written an Employment contract and if possible, start the
Asset-Purchase agreement.

IV. CONCLUSION

This process so far has been frustrating needless to say. Finding my first idea for the
original work was extremely difficult, as I wanted to find a product that would peak my
interest, help others, as well as relate to my topic. However, this proved to be difficult very
quickly. Due to liability and confidentiality issues, I was unable to help my mentor, Mr.
William John Ouska. Additionally, the topics I wanted to write a research paper on did not
have enough information readily available for me and I did not have the time to go conduct
a study to find the data myself. Though there have been many times where I was angry, I am
very happy to know that I finally have a set original work in place. I can now start focusing
on making sure the contracts are finished before final presentation night.

I am excited to begin fully working on my original work. This is important to me

because I can understand what my future will be like and what the majority of my time will
be spent doing. I will be able to strengthen my knowledge base of Corporate Law as well as
learn the basics of how to write a contract.