This post updates my March 23 post on the 2020 National Business Law Scholars Conference.

After much deliberation, the planning committee for the National Business Law Scholars Conference has determined to cancel this year’s in-person event and instead host a virtual workshop on the original scheduled conference dates (June 18-19).  The workshop will consist of moderated paper panels featuring the work of those who submitted proposals for the 2020 conference and desire to participate. We also hope to host a discussion session focusing on online teaching and perhaps one or more feature programs on business law in the COVID-19 era.  

Each registrant for the 2020 conference who submitted an accepted proposal will receive a message in short order asking whether they want to participate in the virtual conference.  Relatively rapid responses to this query will be requested.  A workshop schedule, together with related logistics information will be constructed from those responses and circulated to participants.

As you may recall, the conference this year was scheduled to be held at The University of Tennessee College of Law.  We plan to hold the 2021 National Business Law Scholars Conference at UT Law in Knoxville next June.  We will determine the exact dates for next year's conference in the coming months.  

All of us on the planning committee (listed below) are grateful to all who registered for this year's conference for their patience as we considered options and made the determination to "go virtual."  We look forward to getting everyone together in person next year when we anticipate that conditions will be more safe and stable.  We know that health and safety are paramount for all.  We also know that business law scholars engage in productive discussions that push each other's work forward when we join forces.  We understand that electronic communication is no substitute for an in-person event, but we hope that our 2020 virtual forum responds adequately to both health and safety concerns and the desire to engage with and advance business law research and writing until we can next get together in the same physical place.

Afra Afsharipour (University of California, Davis, School of Law)
Tony Casey (The University of Chicago Law School)
Eric C. Chaffee (The University of Toledo College of Law)
Steven Davidoff Solomon (University of California, Berkeley School of Law)
Joan MacLeod Heminway (The University of Tennessee College of Law)
Kristin N. Johnson (Tulane University Law School)
Elizabeth Pollman (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School)
Jeff Schwartz (University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law)
Megan Wischmeier Shaner (University of Oklahoma College of Law)