It was great to see many of you last week in Los Angeles for the National Business Law Scholars conference at UCLA Law. It was, as always, a positive whirlwind of activity. The array of panels and topics was, as usual impressive. The full agenda can be found here. Michael Dorff and his team did an amazing job of welcoming (and feeding!) us throughout the two days of sessions. As a former host of the conference, I know how tough that can be. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.

I was fortunate to be able to both participate in the opening plenary on the recent changes to Delaware corporate law and also present some of my research and ideas on ESG and corporate compliance.

In the former, I invoked Larry Hammermesh’s amazingly insightful 2006 article in the Columbia Law Review. If you haven’t ever–or recently–read it and are researching or writing about Delaware lawmaking, it is a “must read.” As I noted in the plenary session at the conference, Tennessee attempts to emulate the key parts of the process Larry describes as and when it can. In addition to sharing some of my own views about that process, I enjoyed listening to the comments of my co-panelists Steve Bainbridge, Frank Gevurtz, and Amy Simmerman. And I appreciated the expert moderation provided by Andrew Verstein.

As for the ESG piece, I will have more to say on that at a later date. But that research I am doing and envisioning builds off the work I shared in my posy a few weeks ago. Audience members were encouraging and offered constructive comments and suggestions, which I have come to expect from the audience of our peers that shows up at this conference.

As always, though, my favorite part of the conference was engaging with our business law colleagues. Although every year some must miss the conference for personal or professional reasons, those who show up are unfailingly insightful and entertaining. And it is nice to just catch up. The conference promises much and does not disappoint. This year was no exception.