How legal knowledge can ruin a tv show: an issue-spotting exercise for the legal environment of business course

Attorneys spend three years in law school honing their legal issue spotting skills. This ability to identify legal issues in our surroundings often makes watching a television show difficult to get through as we see a character do something stupid and we think "they would be sued" or "that is illegal" or "it doesn't work that way." Attorneys teaching a Legal Environment of Business course know that having the ability to recognize an issue before it becomes a problem is a valuable skill. The authors have created an exercise called "Ruin a TV Show" that tests your students' ability to spot legal/ethical issues. Students watch an episode of The Office and are required to identify legal and ethical issues as they arise. A twenty-two minute episode has over twenty-five legal/ethical issues to discover. This exercise can be used at the beginning of the semester, at the end of the semester or somewhere in between. Interrupting the show over 25 times to thoroughly discuss the legal issues identified does not make for pleasurable viewing, and in fact, ruins the show, but it does make for an enjoyable learning exercise.