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Joan Heminway

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Professor Heminway brought nearly 15 years of corporate practice experience to the University of Tennessee College of Law when she joined the faculty in 2000. She practiced transactional business law (working in the areas of public offerings, private placements, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and restructurings) in the Boston office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP from 1985 through 2000.

She has served as an expert witness and consultant on business entity and finance and federal and state securities law matters and is a frequent academic and continuing legal education presenter on business law issues. Professor Heminway also has represented pro bono clients on political asylum applications, landlord/tenant appeals, social security/disability cases, and not-for-profit incorporations and related business law issues. Read More

THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ROSENBERG COLLEGE OF LAW invites applications for an entry-level or lateral, tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor, beginning in August 2025. The College is seeking to fill needs in several areas of law, up to two faculty positions this year. We are interested in considering candidates who teach and/or research in Commercial Law, Contracts, Secured Transactions, and Bankruptcy as well as others not included in this list of priorities. We may consider an applicant for a full Professor position. The Rosenberg College of Law is an important part of a major research university and offers a collegial and supportive atmosphere for its faculty, staff, and students. Applicants should have a J.D. or equivalent law degree, a record of high academic achievement, and a demonstrated potential for excellence in teaching and in scholarly productivity. Salary for this position will be commensurate with experience.

To receive consideration for this position, applicants must apply through the University of Kentucky’s Integrated Employment System at https://ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/540069 where they can submit a letter of application and resume. Please send any questions to Faculty Appointments Committee Chair Alan Kluegel, alan.kluegel@uky.edu, or by mail at the University of…

Institute for Law & Economics
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

THIRD ANNUAL JUNIOR FACULTY
BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL LAW WORKSHOP

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

            The Institute for Law & Economics (ILE) at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School is pleased to announce its second annual Junior Faculty Business and Financial Law Workshop.  The Workshop will be held in person on November 22, 2024 at Penn Carey Law.

            The Workshop supports and recognizes the work of untenured legal scholars in the business and financial fields, including accounting, banking, bankruptcy, corporations, economics, finance, tax and securities, while promoting interactions with such scholars, selected tenured faculty and practitioners.  By providing a forum for the exchange of creative ideas in these areas, ILE also aims to encourage new and innovative scholarship in the business and financial arena.

            Approximately 6-8 papers will be chosen from those submitted for presentation at the Workshop.  One or more senior scholars and practitioners will comment on each paper, followed by a general discussion of each paper among all participants.  The Workshop audience will include invited untenured scholars, faculty from Penn Carey Law, The Wharton School, and…

The School of Law at Texas Tech University invites applications for a full-time, 9-month tenure-track Professor of Law position to begin in August of 2025.  The position is open to both entry-level candidates and candidates who are on the tenure-track or tenured at another school.  Candidates who satisfy Texas Tech University’s requirements to be hired with tenure will also be eligible to hold the Frank McDonald Endowed Professorship in business law.

Required Qualifications

In line with TTU’s strategic priorities to engage and empower a diverse student body, enable innovative research and creative activities, and transform lives and communities through outreach and engaged scholarship, applicants should have experience or demonstrated potential for working with diverse student populations at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels within individual or across the areas of teaching, research/creative activity, and service.

Specific required qualifications are:

  1. Candidates should have a J.D.;
  2. Candidates should have a demonstrated potential for excellence in research, teaching, and service; and
  3. Candidates should have demonstrated potential for excellence in the areas of Contracts and in corporate/business law, such as Business Entities, Securities Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, and related courses.

Preferred Qualifications

In addition to the required qualifications, individuals with the following preferred qualifications are…

The University of Oregon School of Law invites applications from entry-level and lateral candidates for two tenure-track positions at the rank of either assistant or associate professor:

Each position will start August 2025. Candidates of all viewpoints and employing any research methodology or approach are welcome to apply.

To apply for either position, applicants should submit (1) a letter of interest; (2) a current resume or CV; (3) a description of their research agenda; (4) a statement addressing their potential contribution(s) to diversity, equity and inclusion (see next paragraph); and (5) a list of references. To ensure consideration, application materials should be submitted by August 21, 2024, although applications will be accepted until the positions are filled.

As part of the application process, applicants must submit a statement about promoting equity, inclusion, and diversity in their professional careers. In evaluating such statements, the law school will consider an applicant’s awareness of inequities and challenges faced by students and faculty belonging to underrepresented or disadvantaged groups; track record (commensurate with career stage) of activities that reduce barriers in education or research for students and faculty belonging…

UNIVERSITY of MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY
SCHOOL of LAW

Job Description

The UMKC School of Law seeks to hire for an entry level or lateral tenure-track or tenured faculty position in Business Law and related fields, which will begin in Fall 2025. The School of Law is looking for faculty members with a strong commitment to educating lawyers for the twenty-first century and those who will actively participate in our collegial, collaborative community. We encourage applications from candidates who would add diversity to our faculty.

UMKC offers a wide range of traditional Business Law courses and also several projects-based and experiential learning courses and programs, some of which are interdisciplinary and involve interactions with departments in UMKC’s Henry W. Bloch School of Management and other academic units. As part of the J.D. program, students may earn a Business and Entrepreneurial Law Emphasis. Additionally, students with potential interest in business-related fields are presented with a variety of skills training options through a team-taught Transactional Lawyering Skills Lab course and other simulation courses, an Entrepreneurial Legal Services Clinic, an Intellectual Property Clinic, and competitions, internships, externships, and supervised independent study opportunities.

One component of the faculty position would be teaching a Business Organizations course.

We do not often talk or write about the scholarship our students produce.  A number of my students have won prizes for their work; more have seen their work published (in one case I know of, three times!).  I wish I had said more about all of that as it was happening.

Today, I want to promote the work of a rising 3L that I am working with on a project.  He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy.  His name is Caleb Atkins.

Caleb recently completed work on an article in the area of healthcare regulation, a big topic in the State of Tennessee, as you may know.  Healthcare is a big business in Tennessee.  Many of our students get jobs in that field. 

I became interested in Caleb’s research while he was working on it because of my knowledge of the merger that underlies and inspired his inquiries.  The consolidation of healthcare facilities in various parts of the United States can have alarming effects on people.  His article provides illustrations.  I just love that Caleb has taken on this work as a student.  Months ago, I asked if I could share his work…

The College of Law at the University of Oklahoma (OU Law) seeks outstanding applicants, entry-level or lateral, for up to three full-time tenure/tenure-track positions to begin in the Fall Semester of 2025, at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor.  OU Law welcomes applicants in all subject areas but has particular interest in filling curricular needs in Bankruptcy, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law (principally upper-division electives), and Family Law. 

OU Law’s strong national reputation is buttressed by a commitment to attracting and supporting excellent faculty with summer research grants, publication placement bonuses, course reductions based on scholarly productivity, and an extraordinary number of endowed positions. 

OU Law is a high-quality, affordable, and forward-looking institution committed to developing a socially involved legal profession. OU Law boasts world-class facilities, a commitment to technological innovation, and a varied student body. 

OU Law sits on the university’s main campus in Norman, a college town alive with entertainment, arts, food, and sports. A perennial “best place to live,” Norman has excellent public schools and low cost-of-living.  Neighboring Oklahoma City features a dynamic economy, outstanding cultural venues, and a major airport. For additional information regarding the university, Norman, and Oklahoma City, visit: 

https://www.ou.edu/facultyrecruitment    https://www.visitnorman.com/    https://www.visitokc.com/…

Florence2024(groupphoto)

On Monday, I had the good fortune to be able to share some of my research and ideas with an international audience (photo above, taken at the European University Institute in Fiesole/Florence, Italy) on Monday.  The topic?  Smart-contracting as an alternative to traditional business contracting. Here’s the nub of what I offered, taken from my abstract (minus the footnotes).

Business transactions have historically been memorialized, if at all, in contracts—legally recognized forms of agreement that, if valid and binding, have the capacity to be enforced through judicial process. These contracts enable business firms to engage in private ordering relative to firm governance, investment activity, business combinations, intellectual property licensing, asset purchases and dispositions, and many other commercial dealings. Contracts have been essential to business governance, finance, and operations for centuries.

The advent of digital commerce has brought many innovations to business transacting. Click-wrap, browse-wrap, scroll-wrap, and sign-in-wrap forms of indicating the acceptance of contractual terms of use on the Internet have become commonplace. As a result, these inventions have been the subject of cases and controversies and related judicial opinions. “The courts in the electronic world search for the functional equivalent of the paper world’s formal requirements of a reasonable…

Many in the business law world have been following the saga involving the adoption of  S.B. 313 by Delaware’s General Assembly last week.  S.B. 313 adds a new § 122(18) to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (DGCL) that broadly authorizes corporations to enter into free-standing stockholder agreements (not embodied in the corporation’s charter) that restrict or eliminate the management authority of the corporation’s board of directors.  See my blog posts here and here and others cited in them, as well as Ann’s post here.

In the floor debate on S.B. 313 last Thursday in the Delaware State House of Representatives, a proponent of the legislation stated that fiduciary duties always trump contracts.  That statement deserves some inspection in a number of respects.  I offer a few simple reflections here from one, limited perspective.

The historical centrality of corporate director fiduciary duties (which were the fiduciary duties referenced on the House floor) is undeniable.  Those who have taken business associations or an advanced business course with me over the years know well that I emphasize in board decision making that the directors’ actions must be both lawful and consistent with their fiduciary duties in order to…