Last week I attended the Midwest Academy of Legal Studies (MALSB) Conference in Chicago, IL. MALSB is one of the 12 regional associations of legal studies professors in business schools that has an annual conference. The Academy of Legal Studies of Business (ALSB) is the national association and the annual national conference is similar to AALS.

Given that I started my academic career at a law school, and still attend some law school professor conferences, I notice differences between law school and business school legal studies professor conferences. While there are plenty of similarities between the conferences, I note some of the differences below.

Pedagogy Presentations. While law school professor conferences do usually address pedagogy in a few panels, the business school legal studies conferences I have attended seem to have a much stronger emphasis. For example, I think the regional and national ALSB conferences tend to have 30%+ of the presentations dedicated to pedagogy. Many of the business school legal studies conferences have master teacher competitions as well, where finalists present their teaching ideas or cases to the audience and a winner is chosen by vote. I think some of this focus on pedagogy is because a fair number of business school legal studies professors are full-time, non-tenure track instructors without research responsibilities. In any case, I generally find the pedagogy presentations quite useful and think law school professor conferences could increase their focus on the area.

Relative Lack of Subject Area Silos. Maybe the biggest difference I have noticed between law school professor conferences and business school legal studies conferences is the relative lack of subject area silos at the legal studies conferences. At most law school professor conferences I attend, I can and do spend the entire time listening to only business law (narrowly defined) presentations. I leave small and big law school conferences only having heard about business associations, corporate governance, M&A, and securities law. At MALSB I heard those presentations, but also heard talks on employment, constitutional, contract, tax, and white collar criminal law. The conference organizers try to keep the panels in generally the same subject area, but the panels bleed into other areas and there is almost never enough pure business presentations to keep you fully occupied at a legal studies conference. The relative lack of subject area silos is good and bad. It is good because the exposure to other areas can lead to new insights about your own areas, but I still attend some law school professor conferences for more focus and depth.   

Associated Journals. Most of the regional and national legal studies associations run blind, peer-reviewed law journals. In my opinion, these journals are excellent for our field and offer a nice alternative to law reviews. I've stuck with the national journals to date because a number of the regional journals do not have WestLaw or Lexis contracts yet. As I have said before, I think there is room for even more traditional peer-reviewed law journals, perhaps run by law schools or by law school associations.

Enjoyed my time at MALSB. The people and the presentations were definitely worth the trip.