The Mercer University School of Law seeks a candidate to fill the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute & W. Homer Drake Jr. Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy Law. The faculty member will teach Bankruptcy Law and business related courses. Candidates who will add to the diversity of our faculty are particularly encouraged to apply. Mercer University is an AA/EEO/ADA employer. Applicants should have a J.D. degree from an accredited university/college, a commitment to excellence in teaching, and demonstrated potential for excellence in research and scholarship. Interested applicants will need to complete the brief online application at: http://hr.mercer.edu/jobs/ and attach a current CV with the names and contact information for three references. For information contact Professor Stephen Johnson, Chair, Appointments Committee, Mercer University School of Law, Johnson_s@law.mercer.edu.
Insurance, Education, and Civil Rights
I recently received word from one of our former guest bloggers, Marcos Mendoza (whom I introduced here and who posted here, here, here, here, and here), that his most recent insurance article, The Limits of Insurance as Governance: Professional Liability Coverage for Civil Rights Claims Against Public School Districts, has been published in the Quinnipiac Law Review. It is available on SSRN here. The abstract follows.
Insurance intersects with people throughout their lives, sometimes with elements that are unobserved or misunderstood. That is often the case with “insurance as governance,” a form of private contractual regulation. This theory assumes that insurers, to minimize their financial losses, attempt to shape policyholder conduct by employing private regulatory measures, primarily through underwriting and contractual loss prevention methods. Insurance as governance is about risk reduction.
This article addresses a question regarding civil rights—do insurers influence the civil rights policies of public school districts? A broad legal arc encompasses civil rights litigation against schools, from freedom of speech complaints to sex-based claims involving students. School boards purchase professional liability insurance to defend their operational policies and actions. Previous research has not examined whether insurers attempt to shape
Notre Dame Law – Open Position Announcement
This announcement landed in my “in box” courtesy of friend-of-the-BLPB ad compliance law expert Veronica Root Martinez at Notre Dame:
Notre Dame Law School Hiring Announcement
Notre Dame Law School may have one or more tenured or tenure-track faculty positions that will begin in Fall 2021. At the heart of a Catholic university, Notre Dame Law School aims to educate lawyers and sustain a community of scholars who understand law as a vocation—a way to serve God and humankind. Our Catholic mission also moves us to be open and welcoming to people of all viewpoints and religious traditions. The Law School’s interest is not limited to any particular subject or subjects. Applicants for these positions should possess excellence in academic background and either demonstrated excellence in scholarship and teaching or the potential for such excellence. Notre Dame is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer of all protected classes including veterans and individuals with disabilities. We welcome applications from women and people of color who will enrich and diversify our faculty. The University of Notre Dame supports the needs of dual career couples and has a Dual Career Assistance Program in place to assist relocating spouses and significant others with their job
Drake Hiring Announcements – Technology and Law
Drake University invites applications from entry level and lateral candidates for a tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor of Law position beginning in the 2021-22 academic year. We are interested in candidates with demonstrated interest or experience in Technology Law. Applicants must hold a J.D. degree (or the equivalent) and should have a record of academic excellence, substantial academic or practice experience, and a passion for teaching. Appointment rank will be determined commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications and experience.
In addition to service and scholarship, this position involves teaching courses such as Legal/Ethical Issues in Technology, Technology Law, Privacy Law, and related areas in both the Law School and the College of Arts & Sciences as well as advising law and undergraduate students and serving as a University resource on technology legal issues.
Drake University sustains a vibrant intellectual culture, and Des Moines has been recognized as the Best Place to Live (US News), the Best Place for Young Professionals (Forbes), and as the #1 Best U.S. City for Business (MarketWatch).
Drake University is an equal opportunity employer and actively seeks applicants who reflect the nation’s diversity. No applicant shall be discriminated against on the basis of
SEALS, Jeffrey Epstein, and Equity in Trust Law and Corporate Law
Mitch Crusto, a long-term buddy from past Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) conferences, contacted me last year about participating in a discussion group at this year’s SEALS conference on issues surrounding and emanating from Jeffrey Epstein’s significant asset transfers to a trust (for the benefit of his brother) two days before his death, currently ruled to be a death by suicide. The discussion group, held yesterday afternoon/evening, was designed to explore interdisciplinary approaches to legal problem-solving, with the thought that the conversation might spur us to bridge doctrinal silos not merely for ourselves, but also for the benefit of our students (in and outside the classroom). Megan Chaney and Victoria Haneman spoke passionately on that issue to lead-off our discussion. Doctrinal areas covered in the session included trusts & estates, business associations, federal income taxation, criminal law, civil rights, and professional responsibility (and I am sure that I am missing some . . . ).
In our initial set of communications, I asked Mitch what possible angle I could have on the Epstein trust matter based on my work and areas of expertise. He noted in response that he would like the session to address, e.g., whether veil
Tips for Online Teaching- Part V
Greetings from SEALS (virtually). I’ve just finished sitting in on the last of several excellent panels on online teaching. Below are tips from the panelists, some of my own lessons learned, and key takeaways from the excellent book Small Teaching Online. For more of the foundations of online teaching see Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.
- Have a class zero- you and students can record an introduction of themselves, pets, hobbies, skills, talents etc. Make sure you’re smiling and conveying your excitement in the video about the class.
- You can also have a class zero where you spend 5 minutes on Zoom with each student before the first day of class talking to them about any questions they have about the class, their tech etc.
- Let students know that this online format is not just a pandemic issue. Virtual offices are increasingly common in practice.
- Think about how to motivate students- what counts as a grade? Should you raise the class participation component and if so, how will you measure it? Will watching videos before class and participating in discussion boards count?
- Stand when recording your video lectures or teaching synchronously. Students
M&A In The Business Law News!
As I have been working on a few projects involving law firms and legal education in the pandemic, I have come across a number of fun business law items involving mergers and acquisitions. The news reports I have noted cover regulatory changes, case law, and planning/drafting. Both small and large transactions are receiving attention. I shared these with Business Law Section colleagues in the Tennessee Bar Association about a week ago. I got some positive response. So, I am sharing them here, too. Feel free to post what you are seeing in this regard in the comments.
In the small business arena, a recent American Bar Association (ABA) Business Law Today article focuses in on clawback provisions in equity sale agreements. These provisions, the article avers, “enable the former owner to participate in the consideration received in a subsequent sale of the business by the remaining owner or owners.” The article lists a number of key things to consider in drafting these kinds of provisions.
Another ABA Business Law Today piece notes the trend toward glorifying deal price in valuation determinations, as evidenced in recent Delaware court opinions on appraisal rights. The article cites to three leading cases, two in
Do Black Entrepreneurs Matter?
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel of Black entrepreneurs sponsored by the Miami Finance Forum, a group of finance, investment management, banking, capital markets, private equity, venture capital, legal, accounting and related professionals. When every company and law firm was posting about Black Lives Matter and donating to various causes, my colleague Richard Montes de Oca, an MFF board member, decided that he wanted to do more than post a generic message. He and the MFF board decided to launch a series of webinars on Black entrepreneurship. The first panel featured Jamarlin Martin, who runs a digital media company and has a podcast; Brian Brackeen, GP of Lightship Capital and founder of Kairos, a facial recognition tech company; and Raoul Thomas, CEO of CGI Merchant Group, a real estate private equity group.
These panelists aren’t the typical Black entrepreneurs. Here are some sobering statistics:
- Black-owned business get their initial financing through 44% cash; 15% family and friends; 9% line of credit; 7% unsecured loans; and 3% SBA loans;
- Between February and April 2020, 41% of Black-owned businesses, 33% of Latinx businesses, and 26% of Asian-owned businesses closed while 17% of White-owned business closed;
- As of 2019,
Focusing on Law Faculty in Extraordinary Times
This coming week, the Association of American Law Schools will host its seventh week of special summer webinars geared to providing assistance to under-supported law faculty in our current unusual circumstances. The series, dubbed “Faculty Focus,” is described in the following way on the program website (which also includes information about upcoming programs):
COVID-19 has affected the normal rhythms of the legal academy in ways that may be particularly disruptive for early-career faculty.
AALS invites tenure-track, clinical, and legal writing faculty to join us on Tuesday afternoons for “Faculty Focus,” a series of weekly webinars organized around issues these individuals may be facing as well as challenges affecting higher education and the profession in general.
Each 60-minute webinar will feature expert advice from law school leaders followed by shared experiences from early career law faculty. The sessions will be structured to encourage conversation and connection, with opportunities for participants to crowdsource solutions and discuss common issues across schools and teaching areas.
Although I am not in the target audience, I have enjoyed several of these programs. Here is a list of the programs held to date:
Week 1: Work-Life Balance and the Demands of Scholarship
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Week
U.S. Securities Crowdfunding: A Way to Economic Inclusion for Low-Income Entrepreneurs in the Wake of COVID-19?
Earlier today, I submitted a book chapter with the same title as this blog post. The chapter, written for an international management resource on Digital Entrepreneurship and the Sharing Economy, represents part of a project on crowdfunding and poverty that I have been researching and thinking through for a bit over two years now. My chapter abstract follows:
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and created economic hardship all over the world. The United States is no exception. Among other things, the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis deepen pre-existing concerns about financing U.S. businesses formed and promoted by entrepreneurs of modest means.
In May 2016, a U.S. federal registration exemption for crowdfunded securities offerings came into existence (under the CROWDFUND Act) as a means of helping start-ups and small businesses obtain funding. In theory, this regime was an attempt to fill gaps in U.S. securities law that handicapped entrepreneurs and their promoters from obtaining equity, debt, and other financing through the sale of financial investment instruments over the Internet. The use of the Internet for business finance is particularly important to U.S. entrepreneurs who may not have access to funding because of their own limited financial and economic positions.