Commercial and Corporate Law
Companies
Understand incorporation, separate legal personality, limited liability, and the piercing of the corporate veil (rare; requires abuse). Know the organs: general meeting, board of directors, and officers; the duties of care and loyalty of directors and officers; conflict-of-interest rules; and the derivative action and class action mechanisms. Trap: a director's duty of loyalty is stricter than care; a transaction with a controlling shareholder requires special approval.
Securities and commercial transactions
Know the Securities Law disclosure duties, insider trading, and the prospectus requirement. For commercial contracts, understand agency, sale of goods, and the rules on standard-form contracts (unfair terms may be void).
Insolvency
Distinguish liquidation, receivership, and stay-of-proceedings; know the priority of secured creditors and the preference rules for pre-insolvency transfers.
Worked rule of thumb
For any corporate question: (1) who acts for the company; (2) was the required approval obtained; (3) did the actor breach care or loyalty; (4) is the veil pierced; (5) what remedy (void, damages, derivative action)?