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We’re a month away from our second annual Business Law Professor Blog CLE, hosted at the University of Tennessee on Friday, September 14, 2018. We’ll discuss our latest research and receive comments from UT faculty and students. I’ve entitled my talk Beyond Bitcoin: Leveraging Blockchain for Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Enterprise Risk Management, and will blog more about that after I finish the article. This is a really long post, but it’s chock full of helpful links for novices and experts alike and highlights some really interesting work from our colleagues at other law schools.

Two weeks ago, I posted some resources to help familiarize you with blockchain. Here’s a relatively simple definition from John Giordani at Forbes:

Blockchain is a public register in which transactions between two users belonging to the same network are stored in a secure, verifiable and permanent way. The data relating to the exchanges are saved inside cryptographic blocks, connected in a hierarchical manner to each other. This creates an endless chain of data blocks — hence the name blockchain — that allows you to trace and verify all the transactions you have ever made. The primary function of a…

Pura vida from Costa Rica. Between recovery from carpal tunnel surgery a few weeks ago and an ATV flip two days ago, I don’t have much mental or physical energy to do a full post. I haven’t mastered dictation so I’m typing this on an iPad with one hand. Next week, I’ll provide more substance as well as a preview on my September talk at our second annual BPLB symposium at the University of Tennessee. Today, I want to pass on some resources for those who don’t know anything about blockchain. 

For those who want to provide resources for students, Walter Effross has put together a great site:

Ten Reasons for Blockchain Law Literacy

The following sources come from Professor Tonya Evans at UNH, who has developed an online curriculum on blockchain:

Use Cases: 

https://medium.com/fluree/blockchain-for-2018-and-beyond-a-growing-list-of-blockchain-use-cases-37db7c19fb99

https://www.mycryptopedia.com/16-promising-blockchain-use-cases/

Education:

https://medium.com/universablockchain/blockchain-in-education-49ad413b9e12

Blockchain + Law:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_can_contribute_to_the_rise_of_blockchain_by_understanding_it

https://abovethelaw.com/2018/02/blockchain-can-smart-contracts-replace-lawyers/

Bitcoin And Blockchain: What Lawyers Need To Know

Next week, I’ll talk about my research into how blockchain is used in corporate governance, compliance, supply chain management, enterprise risk management, cybersexurity, and human rights. 

Nebraska

Details on another excellent business law professor position are posted below.

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Entry-Level or Experienced Faculty Position

The UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA COLLEGE OF LAW invites applications for entry-level and lateral candidates for two tenure-track or tenured faculty positions.

Our primary areas of interest are Civil Procedure, Business Associations, and other business law courses, including, but not limited to, Corporate Finance, Securities Regulation, Corporate Governance, Non-Profit Organizations, and Transactional Drafting.

Other needs include courses related to

  • Health Care (g., Federal Regulation of Health Care Providers, Health Care Finance, Administrative Law, Medical Malpractice, Privacy Law, Law and Medicine, Public Health Law, Bioethics and the Law, and the Law of Provider and Patient);
  • Litigation Skills and Related Courses (g., Trial Advocacy, Civil Rights Litigation, Conflicts of Law, Remedies, Pretrial Litigation, and other litigation skills courses);
  • Criminal Law (g., Federal Criminal Law, White Collar Crime, Post­Conviction Remedies, and Criminal Sentencing);
  • Environmental Law (g., Environmental Law, Water Law, and Natural Resources Law);
  • Family Law; and
  • Election Law.

Minimum required qualifications include a J.D. Degree or equivalent, superior academic record, and a demonstrated interest in relevant substantive areas. The title of Assistant or Associate Professor will…

On Thursday and Friday of last week, I had the honor of attending and presenting at the inaugural conference on Women’s Leadership in Academia at the University of Georgia School of Law.  The conference featured a wide variety of plenary and breakout/workshop sessions over the two days.  My dean and two other colleagues from UT Law also were presenters at the conference; an additional UT Law colleague attended but did not present.

The opening plenary panel featured four women talking about “Me Too and the Legal Academy.”  The panelists offered perspectives from journalism, criminal law, tort law, constitutional law, victim/survivor advocacy, classroom teaching, law school administration, campus Title IX adjudication, and personal experience.  Audience members actively participated in a dialogue with the panelists.  The keynote on the second day was delivered by the interim provost at UGA, Libby Morris, who offered information on women in leadership–data, anecdotes, and observations–and moderated a related audience Q&A.

The remainder of the program included various panels, presentations, and workshops.  Among them was a nifty combined PechaKucha/workshop offered by three of my UT Law colleagues on “Leadership Challenges and Solutions over the Course of a Career” and my breakout session entitled “Outside the Four…

This summer, I have met with a few of my pre-law advisees who will start their 1L years in a few weeks. 

While I have blogged on general advice for students before, I decide to memorialize some of my specific advice for 1Ls.

Of course, every student is different, and this advice may be amended a bit, depending on the student’s situation and goals. This advice, for example, assumes a desire to perform well academically. I encourage my co-bloggers to chime in through the comments or in separate posts. My co-blogger Josh Fershee (West Virginia) has already authored two 1L advice posts, which are worth consulting, here and here. It should go without saying that I did not follow all of my own advice, but I wish I had. 

  • Move into your house or apartment a few weeks early. Moving in early may not be possible for every student, but it is worth doing if you can. Getting settled before the work starts to pile up can help you avoid getting behind early.  
  • Live alone or with friends with similar schedules. I had some law school friends who lived with non-law students, usually people they knew from college who

…

Had I not been taking pictures on the beach during a morning walk with dear college friends on the New England shoreline, I would not have seen the incoming call on my silenced cell phone–a call from a business law colleague from UT Law that I figured I ought to answer.  But the call was not, as I expected, a request for help with a research or teaching question.  Instead, this colleague was calling to inform me of an email message from our Dean letting us know that our junior business law colleague, Jonathan Rohr, had died the day before.  (I am linking here to a YouTube video featuring Jonathan, which will tell you much more about the man that he was than any CV or website.)

Jonathan came into my life almost two years ago when he interviewed with UT Law for a permanent, tenure track position after VAP-ing at his law alma mater, Cardozo.  From the start, Jonathan impressed me and others on the Appointments Committee with his intellect, his enthusiasm for the faculty task, and his intensity.  He survived the appointments tournament and came to work with us last summer.  Before his untimely death, he already…

Seton Hall University School of Law welcomes applications for tenure-track positions to begin July 1, 2019. Candidates should have a J.D. or equivalent degree and a record of academic excellence. Candidates should be able to demonstrate both extraordinary scholarly promise and the ability or potential to be an outstanding teacher who can motivate students while preparing them for the practice of law in the twenty-first century. The School of Law will consider entry-level and junior lateral candidates in a variety of subject areas with particular focus on 1) Law and Technology, including data analytics/AI as it intersects with law and compliance, social media and electronic discovery, and ethics in the intersection of law and technology; 2) Business Law, preferably with a focus on Securities Regulation; and 3) Health Law, preferably with a focus on Healthcare Fraud or Food and Drug Law.

Seton Hall Law School offers a vibrant, energetic academic environment. Located in downtown Newark, New Jersey, approximately 20 minutes from Manhattan, Seton Hall Law is especially well-regarded in the health and life sciences law, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and privacy arenas, and it is in the process of expanding its role in energy, technology and data analytics. The faculty includes…

I received the following today through the AALS teaching listserv.  It may be of interest to some of you or to folks you may know in the region.

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Dear Friends:

I am happy to report that the UC Davis School of Law is offering a mandatory skills course for 1Ls starting in Spring 2019. It will include segments on negotiation and client interviewing. If you are in northern California, or plan to be January through March 2019, I hope you will consider applying for one of the six adjunct positions relating to this exciting new course. Information here: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/apply/JPF02281

Donna Shestowsky, J.D., Ph.D.
Director of Lawyering Skills Education
Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law
Martin Luther King Jr. Research Scholar
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Psychology, UC Davis
dshest@ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 754-5693
My latest research, published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, can be found here:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2945706