The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

I love it when things connect and come full circle and all that stuff. That’s why I loved this case when it came up in my Labor Law class: because I’m a huge fan of NBC’s The Office, and it reminded me of the episode “Ben Franklin,” where the guys and gals throw a bachelor and bachelorette party for two office mates that are about to get married.

The idea is that Michael Scott, the manager played by Steve Carell, throws a bachelor party for another businessman in the office complex who is marrying one of Michael’s staff members. Michael hires a stripper and tells her to come to the office and perform for the men in the warehouse.

Match that up with this fact pattern from the case we read a while back:

“The case of Walter Weigand is extraordinary. If ever a workman deserved summary discharge it was he. He was under the influence of liquor while on duty. he came to work when he chose and he left the plant and his shift as he pleased. In fact, a foreman on one occasion was agreeably surprised to find Weigand at work and commented upon it. Weigand amiably stated that he was enjoying it. He brought a woman (apparently generally known as the “Duchess”) to the rear of the plant yard and introduced some of the workers to her. He took another employee to visit her and when this man got too drunk to be able to go home, punched his time-card for him and put him on the table in the representatives’ meeting room in the plant in order to sleep off his intoxication.”

Edward G. Budd Mfg. Co. v. NLRB
138 F.2d 86 (rd Cir. 1943), cert denied, 321 U.S. 778 (1944)

HE BROUGHT A PROSTITUTE TO THE REAR END OF THE PLANT YARD.

The jokes, they write themselves, you guys.

But honestly, I want to know which Office writer or story editor cracked open the Henderson casebook and was like, yeah, this’ll do, Pig.

Here’s an awesome clip from that episode of the Office. To set it up, the guys got a female stripper, and Jim Halpert, the second-in-command, was in charge of getting a male stripper for the women. So he got a scholastic speaker. Ben Franklin, to be specific. Here’s Dwight, talking to ol’ Ben.

Click the picture to be taken to the video clip (because it won’t let me embed.

Heeeeee.

He’s 99% sure.