Hello, everyone – I’m passing this along in case any of our readers have an interest, or know anyone who might have an interest.  And if anyone needs convincing as to why they should spend a semester or a year in New Orleans, email me privately and allow me to extol the city’s virtues.

Tulane Law School is currently accepting applications for a visiting tax professor for either the Fall of 2016 or for the entire 2016-2017 Academic Year.  Visitors would be expected to teach basic Income Tax and other tax related courses.  Applicants at any career stage are encouraged.  To apply, please submit a CV along with a statement of interest and any supporting documentation.  Applications and questions may be directed to Vice Dean Ronald J. Scalise Jr. at rscalise@tulane.edu.   Tulane University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity.  All eligible candidates are invited to apply. 

Some readers may be interested in the position listed below. Georgia Institute of Technology, Scheller College of Business has a strong faculty and is a recognized leader in the sustainability area.

———————

Managing Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business

(Professor of the Practice or Academic Professional)

The Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia seeks applications or nominations for an academic appointment as the Managing Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (ACSB). The Center is part of the Scheller College of Business, which was ranked #1 in the US and #8 globally in the 2015 Corporate Knights Better World MBA Rankings. The College is a dynamic environment with a commitment to sustainability embedded in its strategic plan and faculty members across many disciplines who have sustainable business interests. The Managing Director will have the opportunity to shape and steer the growth of the Center’s activities and impact, as the Center recently received a long-term gift doubling its operational budget from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. The Managing Director will also have the opportunity to partner with the Georgia Tech Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (CSLS), an institute-wide undergraduate education initiative that is developing learning and co-curricular opportunities designed to help our students combine their academic and career interests with their desire to create sustainable communities.

More information follows after the break.

The Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University seeks to hire a resident academic fellow to begin in September or October 2016 for a 12-month or one-academic-year term, with the possibility of renewal for a second year. The fellow will pursue his or her own independent research, as well as work closely with Stanford Law School faculty on a range of projects related to corporate governance, securities regulation, vehicles for public and private investment, and financial market reform. The ideal candidate has excellent academic credentials and experience in relevant fields of practice. The position is particularly well suited to a practicing attorney, with either a litigation or transactional background, seeking a transition to academia, or a post-doctoral economics or finance student with interests in corporate governance. More information can be found at https://stanfordcareers.stanford.edu/job-search?jobId=70496

There’s been a lot of bad press lately about contract lawyers.  Between legal actions for overtime pay and articles in bar publications and elsewhere, it’s easy to conclude that all of these warriors in the legal workforce are overworked and underpaid in this post-financial-crisis world.

Yet, I just had a corporate general counsel in my Advanced Business Associations class last week who regularly uses contract counsel and, based on his description, those he works with seem to be a relatively contented lot.  He has gone ahead and hired a few of them (although he notes that some prefer independent contractor status for its flexibility).  So, I wonder whether many of us make the same mistake with the press on contract lawyers that we do with the press on law schools: generalizing a description and drawing conclusions from limited, nonscientific data (i.e., one-sided or narrowly drawn press reports). For one thing, most of what I read focuses on contract lawyers performing e-discovery reviews or rote due diligence.  I know that there are more varied assignments out there (even if those two areas represent most of the territory).

I do know former students who, for a variety of reasons, have worked as

I am posting this at the request of our Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Alex Long:

The University of Tennessee invites applications for a possible visiting professor for the fall or spring semester in 2016-17. The position would involve teaching Business Associations and one other business-related course (including, perhaps, Contracts I or II). If interested, please submit a CV and cover letter via email to Alex Long, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee College of Law at along23@utk.edu. Prior teaching experience (law school or broader university teaching) is strongly preferred. The closing date for applications is Monday, February 29, 2016.

I also am happy to respond to questions about this opening.

My home state in West Virginia is struggling.  The economy is struggling because two of the state’s main industries — coal and natural gas — are facing falling production (coal) and low prices (gas). Severance taxes for the state account for approximately 13% of the budget, and both are down dramatically. Tax revenues for the state were down $9.8 million in January from the prior year and came up $11.5 million short of estimates.  For the year-to-date, the state collected $2.29 billion, which is $169.5 million below estimates. Oddly enough, state sales and income taxes for January both exceeded estimates, but not enough to offset other stagnation in the state.  

The state has long been known as a coal state, and that industry has dominated the legal and political landscape.  West Virginia has been criticized for having a legal system that is “anti-business,” with the United States Chamber of Commerce finding stating that West Virginia is the 50th ranked state in terms of the fairness of its litigation. (See PDF here.) CNBC (with input from the National Association of Manufacturers) also ranked West Virginia last in terms of business competitiveness, so the starting point is not good.  

Now, the West Virginia legislature is considering the

From the Faculty Lounge: “Villanova University – Charles Widger School of Law seeks an outstanding lawyer/educator/scholar to teach business law and entrepreneurship courses, broadly defined, and to serve as the Faculty Director for The John F. Scarpa Center for Law and Entrepreneurship.” More information available here.

Updated Law Professor (Business Areas) Position List.

Updated Legal Studies Professor Position List (Mostly Business Schools).

At this point in the year, I imagine that some, if not many, of the positions on the list may be filled.

A number of months back, the Business Law Prof Blog hosted a series of five posts by Marcos Antonio Mendoza (here, here, here, here, and here) that were quite popular.  He wrote about (among other things) the need to educate students for the evolving roles in which they may serve as corporate counsel.  His recent article on corporate counsel.com offers much food for thought along those lines and serves as a good reminder, as we head into a new semester, of what our students may need long-term in the workplace.  In both this article and his earlier BLPB posts, Marcos is reacting to an academic research paper, “Finding the Right Corporate Legal Strategy” (available to subscribers or for purchase), published last year in the MIT Sloan Management Review by Professor Robert C. Bird of the University of Connecticut School of Business and Professor David Orozco from the Florida State University College of Business.

Although you all should read Marcos’s Corporate Counsel article (and his posts) for yourselves, I will offer a few quotes from the article and related law school instruction take-aways here.  These largely repeat and reframe Marcos’s own observations in his BLPB posts.

  • “[T]he