Investigate Director Liability in a SaaS Scale-Up's Failed Deal
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Build an evidence log linking a CEO’s unauthorized promise to director duties, then assess board oversight. Get a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
The company is a UK-incorporated business-to-business software-as-a-service scale-up of roughly forty people, profitable enough to attract large enterprise clients but young enough that its governance and internal sign-off processes have not yet caught up with the size of the deals it is now chasing.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Determine whether the chief executive's unauthorised promise that caused a £500,000 loss breached duties under the Companies Act 2006, and whether the board failed its oversight duty, given its delegation of sales strategy.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Apply the general statutory duties of directors under the Companies Act 2006 to a concrete commercial dispute
- Distinguish between an individual director's breach and a board's collective oversight failure
- Explain how the business judgment principle does and does not protect directors who delegate authority
- Build a traceable chain from observed facts to legal conclusions suitable for review by non-lawyers
- Draft practical governance recommendations that mitigate director liability
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Director Duties
Apply director duties to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Companies Act 2006
Apply companies act 2006 to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Business Judgment Rule
Apply business judgment rule to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Liability Assessment
Apply liability assessment to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Board Oversight
Apply board oversight to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Corporate Governance Analyst
This challenge mirrors the daily work of advising boards on where authority sits and how oversight gaps create exposure, building the judgement needed to flag governance risk before it becomes litigation.
This challenge sharpens
- board-oversight
- director-duties
- companies-act-2006
In-House Legal Counsel
In-house counsel at scale-ups routinely assess director exposure from fast-moving commercial decisions. The challenge develops the ability to translate statute into practical, board-facing risk advice and mitigation steps.
This challenge sharpens
- liability-assessment
- director-duties
- board-oversight
Disputes & Liability Associate
Litigation and disputes lawyers must test defences such as the business judgment principle against the facts of a director's conduct. This challenge builds exactly that evidence-to-conclusion reasoning under UK company law.
This challenge sharpens
- business-judgment-rule
- liability-assessment
- companies-act-2006