Professor Nguyen's Contracts Class Examines COVID-19 Impacts
04/16/2020
The subject matter could scarcely have been more topical for Professor Xuan-Thao Nguyen’s 1Ls. She encouraged the students in her Contracts and Sales II class to research and present four-minute presentations, and many of them utilized the opportunity to apply their knowledge to contracts-related topics surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many students focused on a wide range of coronavirus-related contracts topics in industries or sectors that they know well through their employment or personal interests,” Professor Nguyen said. “What is so remarkable about their presentations? The 1Ls show their mastery of the law, applications to current events, and analysis. Their presentations also show their confidence, problems-solving approach, and love of learning. They are well on their paths to become future lawyers. As always, I am very proud of my students.”
Here are some of those students and what they had to say about their projects:
Whitney Grout works in retail at a nationwide entity, and held a management position there prior to entering law school. She was interested in how a national mall developer was handling businesses who are unable to pay their rent. Her employer was able to pay rent, but her attention was caught by the news that a nationwide restaurant chain declared that they would not pay rent at any of their locations for the month of April. “I looked at articles surrounding force majeure clauses in contracts to see if it was possible to notify landlords of non-payment due to pandemic,” Grout said. “I was surprised at the number of restaurants that were not participating or transitioning to take-out/delivery models.”
Jacob Hatcher studied fashion merchandising and marketing at Ball State University. He works in luxury retail, and is considering a career path that would combine copyright, trademark, and intellectual property law, with an eye toward utilizing that in the fashion industry. He looked into whether IUPUI’s Parking Services would be issuing refunds given that Indiana University students cannot travel to campus for classes because of the governor’s stay-at-home order. “That piqued my interest to see what their policies were,” Hatcher said. “Most terms and conditions/contracts probably did not have provisions that discussed pandemics, and this was no exception. I was surprised that there was nothing listed in the Parking Services Terms and Conditions that mentioned school/campus closing, and what would be done if that were to occur.”
Cassie Hendrickson studied cultural anthropology at Hanover, and worked as a men’s and women’s golf coach for a year there after graduation before coming to IU McKinney. It was one of the two sports she played during her undergraduate studies. She is interested in what the long-term impacts of the pandemic will be on society, not only because it is dominating the news, but also because she is interested in how its fall-out will be considered in the future. “I chose to cover how business contracts are impacted by COVID-19 because in times like this, it is easy to become overwhelmed and panicked,” Hendrickson said. “I wanted to take a deep breath and rationally analyze how some of the negative impacts of the virus can be resolved with contracts law. I was not surprised at the information I found, but I was surprised at how many potential solutions I could think of to help ameliorate these situations. I was able to apply more solutions than what I originally predicted.”
Brient Hicks works as a data analyst in the supply chain department at Ascension Health, and his presentation for Professor Nguyen’s class focused on the contract he uses in this work. “I think it’s a unique contract that must be modified in order to protect the safety of our patients and clinicians,” Hicks said.
Abraham Phillips works in engineering at Rolls-Royce, and worked with the attorneys in the company’s legal department on his class project. “I have been aware of the nature of the contracts Rolls-Royce makes with airlines for some time,” Hicks said. “But I am still surprised by how much risk Rolls-Royce accepts in the event of design flaws. They pay fees for grounded aircraft, cost to repair, and lost flight hours. It says a lot about the competitive market and the confidence Rolls-Royce has in its products.”
Lindsey Rainbolt looked into how the pandemic is impacting professional soccer and its players’ contracts and employment agreements. FIFA is the international governing body for soccer, and its guidelines had to cover this situation for 211 different national associations. Player contracts would extend until the season is actually completed, Rainbolt found, and the player transfer windows also will fall in between the end of the current extended season and the beginning of the next likely delayed season. “It seems like such a simple solution, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out for each individual soccer association and for individual players.”
Cecelia Shaulis is a paralegal at Klipsch Group, Inc., and her legal department has been analyzing contracts for the effects of COVID-19. She said she was somewhat surprised by the findings of her research. “When the contract I talked about was made, it seemed like everyone was happy and on the same page” Shaulis said. “There was a ‘meeting of the minds’ as required in contracts. However, once both sides tried to start figuring out what to do during the pandemic, we realized there were significant misunderstandings between the parties regarding the promises made in the contract.”
Alex Vargo recently ordered something online, as many people have done more of lately, and decided to examine how the shipping industry has been impacted by the pandemic. He also owns a business, and works full time for the Indiana State Excise Police. “I would presume that the shipper would do anything that they could to make a little more money or cover more costs that they had not foreseen so they are not eating profits,” Vargo said. “As a business owner I completely understand their position.”
Austin Whitted decided to evaluate implied warranties and the potential concerns that facemask manufacturers, particularly those that make N95 masks, should be aware of during the pandemic. He has several family members who work in healthcare, and was interested in how the manufacturers were portraying their masks’ effectiveness against the virus. “I found that companies carefully selected the words they used to describe their products’ effectiveness against the coronavirus to avoid any implied warranty issues,” Whitted said. “This was not surprising because little is still known about how the virus can transmit from person to person.”
Terri Zimmerman chose to examine insurance policies as contracts, having discussed damages from contracts in a recent class. This led her to consider other ways in which damages are mitigated. She is the senior vice president of Reveal Risk, a boutique consulting firm, and wanted to consider the issues as a business owner as well. “In addition to learning more about the specific situation of insurance and COVID-19, I learned about more laws and uniform commercial codes that apply to the space of insurance,” Zimmerman said. “I was able to understand how insurance companies are looking at the situation.”
Professor Nguyen holds the Gerald L. Bepko Chair in Law, and is the director of the IU McKinney Center for Intellectual Property Law and Innovation. She is an internationally recognized legal scholar, known for her expertise at the intersections of intellectual property, secured transactions, bankruptcy, licensing, and taxation. She was named a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers in March 2017.
