Courses - Cayman Islands Fall Intersession Program

WEEK 1:  December 26-29, 2022

Company Law and Corporate Governance (1 credit)

INSTRUCTOR: Keenan Johnson, Associate Tutor at Eugene Dupuch Law School, Nassau, The Bahamas

Keenan Johnson is Counsel and Attorney-at-Law (LLM) with experience in financial services, corporate governance, trust and fund administration, commercial transactions, and employment law. He has extensive experience in the international banking sector, including at Citibank and Scotiabank, reviewing legal diligence, drafting, negotiating, and providing legal advice in relation to a variety of funds and trading agreements. As a Tutor at the Eugene Dupuch Law School, he teaches courses such as Law Office Management Accounting and Law of Remedies.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course will analyze the basic principles and areas of company law and corporate governance; including the corporate vehicle, separate legal personality, the role of shareholders and directors, issues related to small companies, takeovers and mergers, and creditors, with a brief overview of selected corporate finance issues.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Analyze the process of incorporation and other procedural requirements;

2. Explain the concept of separate legal personality;

3. Assess the role of shareholders and directors;

4. Analyze the role of small companies;

5. Examine the role of directors in takeovers;

6. Examine the role of creditors and auditors in relation to a company; and

7. Discuss the issues of debt and equity financing for a company.

WEEK 2:  January 2-5, 2023

Comparative Taxation (1 credit)

INSTRUCTOR: Andrew Appleby, Associate Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida

Professor Andrew Appleby focuses his teaching and scholarship on tax and business law. Professor Appleby has published in many prominent law journals and has particular expertise in state and local taxation, sports taxation, and applied tax policy. He has been featured extensively in the media, including The New York Times, Bloomberg TV, and Tax Notes.  Professor Appleby also co-authors the leading treatise on state taxation, Hellerstein’s State Taxation (3d. ed) (with Jerome Hellerstein & Walter Hellerstein).  

Professor Appleby practiced tax and corporate law at leading law firms for nearly a decade. Most recently, he was special counsel in the tax group in Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP's New York office. Professor Appleby was a partner in the tax group in Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP's New York office, and an associate in the corporate group in Alston & Bird LLP's Atlanta office. He also taught advanced legal methods as a member of the New York Law School adjunct faculty. Prior to his legal career, Professor Appleby was an information technology and business consultant.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course compares modern tax systems in several developed and developing countries. The coverage is broad, touching on many countries and types of taxes, as well as the general legal framework for tax law, procedure, and policy.

This course analyzes income taxes, property and wealth taxes, and consumption taxes such as VAT. The focus is on underlying structural differences in legal systems, including constitutional issues, different approaches to defining income, alternative systems for taxing individuals and families, challenges with the VAT (including international services and the digital economy), judicial interpretation of tax laws, and judicial and legislative anti-avoidance doctrines. This course examines modern trends in tax administration including issues of tax complexity and tax compliance and incorporates a robust tax policy analysis. Students completing this course will have a basic understanding of how to approach foreign tax law, and the tools to better understand the tax system in the student’s own country.