Business Associations

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STETSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW, Florida’s first law school, invites applicants from entry-level and lateral candidates for several faculty positions. Our hiring priorities focus on candidates who are enthusiastic about enhancing our existing institutional strengths and helping us develop new areas of excellence. We welcome applications from qualified candidates across all areas and specializations. Specifically, we seek individuals with expertise in business law, civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law, legal research and writing, professional responsibility, and tax law.

The Faculty Appointments Committee will review applicants until all positions are filled. The review of lateral applicants will begin in May and will continue on a rolling basis throughout the summer.

Stetson Law was founded in 1900 and is excited to celebrate its 125th Anniversary this year. Stetson Law has a national reputation for its advocacy program, ranked #1 in the nation, and its legal writing program, ranked #3 in the nation, by U.S. News and World Report. It also boasts renowned centers, institutes, and clinics in various fields, such as advocacy, elder law, higher education, biodiversity and the environment, legal communication, Caribbean law, and veterans law.

Stetson University includes a College of Arts and Sciences, a School of Music, and a…

Friends keep sending me contracts they created with ChatGPT or Claude.

They read well. The formatting is clean.

But essential clauses are often missing—or the terms don’t reflect the actual business deal.

Sometimes I revise heavily. Sometimes I start over.

This post isn’t about whether AI is capable.

It’s about whether the person prompting knows how contracts actually work in business.

A contract isn’t a CYA document like my friends think. It reflects how the parties have chosen to allocate risk, reflect their priorities, and protect relationships and business interests.

AI can assist with drafting. I use it. I teach it. But without commercial judgment, even the best prompt won’t protect the business.

We’re need to train future lawyers and all workers not to rely on AI but to partner with it.

At University of Miami School of Law, we’re preparing students to step into the real world—with both digital and business acumen.

In our Transactional Skills Program, students don’t learn theory.

They negotiate, redline, bill, meet with simulated clients, and use AI responsibly. They also work with real-world agreements—documents they’ll see in practice:

✅ NDAs, employment, and contractor agreements

✅ SaaS, MSAs, and licensing deals

✅ Escrow, loan…

Yesterday, The New York Times published the attached article. [this one, on the Paul, Weiss settlement] Many of you may have read about the referenced brokered deal between the Paul, Weiss firm and the Trump administration. But did you consider the related firm decision making as a matter of business associations law? I want us to engage with that in lieu of today’s class, using our knowledge of partnership

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The first webinar hosted by the Association of American Law Schools Section on Leadership for the 2025 membership year is scheduled for Thursday (March 6) from 1 pm – 2 pm ET/12 pm – 1 pm CT/11 am – 12 pm MT/10 am – 11 am PT.  The speaker is Elsbeth Magilton, Lecturer and Director of Externships at the University of Nebraska College of Law.  She will be speaking on “Law Students Learning to Lead through Non-Profit Board Service.”  The abstract for her talk is set forth below.  

This presentation showcases the work of attorneys on nonprofit boards, how the Nebraska Law Nonprofit Board Service Program has succeeded at Nebraska, and what challenges it is still overcoming. The program places law students with an area nonprofit board of directors for an academic year to observe, support, and engage with the nonprofit governance process, under the mentorship of an attorney board member. The Nonprofit Board Service Program “courses + shadow experience” model is an opportunity for students to learn about board service, engage with area attorneys and nonprofits, and reflect on how they can use their developing professional skills to benefit and lead in their community.

The session…

Friend of the BLPB Paolo Farah reached out to let me know about severl discussion groups, described below, that he is organizing for the 2025 Southeastern Association of Law Schools Conference this summer. If you have interest in participating, please contact Paolo at PDFarah@mail.wvu.edu.

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“Transforming Global Agriculture and Cultivating Tomorrow: Farmers’ Rights, Animal Law, Trade, Sovereignty, Ethics, and Innovation for Sustainable Progress“

This session unites diverse perspectives to explore challenges and opportunities in agriculture. By integrating disciplines like law, trade, ethics, and innovation, the panel addresses critical issues such as protecting farmers’ rights, evolving animal law, the effects of international trade, and food sovereignty’s role in sustainable development. Topics include ethical considerations, technological advancements, and policy frameworks essential for navigating transformation. Panelists will offer insights into fostering global and domestic collaboration to build equitable, sustainable agricultural systems while tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security challenges, driving meaningful progress for a sustainable future.

“Enhancing Experiential Learning in Environmental, Energy, and Sustainability Law and Policy Education“

This discussion group explores innovative ways to integrate real-world experiences into legal education. Bringing together educators, practitioners, and policymakers, it highlights approaches to teaching environmental, energy…

Business Transactional Skills Professor
University of Richmond School of Law

The University of Richmond School of Law is seeking applicants for a full-time faculty member to teach business law courses, including transactional skills courses. The position will begin in the summer or fall of 2025. The full position description is here — law.richmond.edu/faculty/hiring.html.

Our new hire will teach one section of Business Associations (our foundational business law course), Mergers & Acquisitions, and two transactional skills courses. The skills courses will emphasize experiential learning, allowing students to work on assignments that resemble the type of work they will do in practice and to develop skills as legal and business advisors to their clients. Candidates must have several years of practice experience in business transactional law and a J.D. from a U.S. accredited law school.

This is a non-tenure track position that focuses on teaching and mentoring students during the nine-month academic year. Depending on experience, a successful candidate will be hired as an Assistant or Associate Professor of Law, Legal Practice and will be eligible for promotion and five-year presumptively renewable contracts upon promotion to Professor of Law, Legal Practice.

The University of Richmond is a private university located just…

This year’s symposium, titled Navigating the Relationship Between the Administrative State and Emerging Technology, will focus on the evolving regulatory frameworks around emerging technologies like digital assets and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are rapidly transforming the way individuals and businesses engage in commerce, interact socially, and innovate. These advancements, however, raise profound questions about the applicability of existing regulatory structures. The symposium will bring together leading experts to discuss how the administrative state can balance the protection of innovation with the mitigation of risks associated with these technologies, while ensuring that laws evolve to meet the challenges of the future.

We are thrilled to welcome Michele Korver, Head of Regulatory & Operating Partner at a16z crypto, to deliver the opening keynote. Michele’s wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors will provide invaluable insights into the state of digital asset regulation. The event will conclude with a thought-provoking closing address, offering reflections on the key discussions of the day.

Welcome and Opening Remarks (1:15 PM – 1:25 PM)

The symposium will begin with brief welcoming remarks, setting the stage for an afternoon of in-depth discussions and exploring the complexities surrounding the intersection of technology, law, and…

I managed to hold off for a few weeks–and then for the past 24-48 hours (or so)–in reporting back on the current state of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). But the U.S. Supreme Court has again spoken, and so it is time to do an update (since little more is likely to happen over the weekend). FinCEN, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, summarizes the current state of play, an update from my post earlier this month.

On January 23, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the government’s motion to stay a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in Texas (Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc. v. McHenry—formerly, Texas Top Cop Shop v. Garland). As a separate nationwide order issued by a different federal judge in Texas (Smith v. U.S. Department of the Treasury) still remains in place, reporting companies are not currently required to file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN despite the Supreme Court’s action in Texas Top Cop Shop. Reporting companies also are not subject to liability if they fail to file this information while the Smith order remains in force. However, reporting companies may continue to voluntarily submit beneficial ownership information reports.

And so it…

Hat tip to friend-of-the-BLPB Tom Rutledge for this.

On December 31, 1600, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to the East India Company, accurately described by Tom as “the granddaddy of business associations.” You can find the brief HISTORY.com accounting here. A longer article on the HISTORY.com site, authored by Dave Roos, can be found here. The first paragraph follows.

One of the biggest, most dominant corporations in history operated long before the emergence of tech giants like Apple or Google or Amazon. The English East India Company was incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600 and went on to act as a part-trade organization, part-nation-state and reap vast profits from overseas trade with India, China, Persia and Indonesia for more than two centuries. Its business flooded England with affordable tea, cotton textiles and spices, and richly rewarded its London investors with returns as high as 30 percent.

As I prepare to teach Business Associations again in the spring semester, it is sobering to be reminded that, even as the law of business associations continually evolves, the form and function are not new. Also, the concept that the private firm and government can serve–and has served–the same and…

Following on some email communications regarding my post last week relating to optimal statutory resources for a business associations course, Itai Fiegenbaum and I have decided to organize a discussion group at the 2025 Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) conference (to be held at the Omni Resort in Amelia Island, Florida, July 26-Aug. 2) on teaching practices in the basic business associations course. In addition to addressing the need for and type of statutory resources used in teaching the course, we would expect the discussion group to cover, e.g., teaching and learning objectives, the aggregate number of credit hours devoted to the basics of business associations law, the statutes taught, the overall range of topics covered, assessment methods, and teaching methodologies and tools. Please email me at jheminwa@tennessee.edu to let me know if you are interested in joining us at Amelia Island next summer for this discussion group.