Law School

Subscribe to Law School via RSS

Between the Winter Olympics and the Superbowl, this weekend is a sports-lover’s dream. But it can also be a nightmare for others. Next week in my Business and Human Rights class, we’ll discuss the business of sports and the role of business in sports. For some very brief background, under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the state has a duty to protect human rights but businesses have a responsibility (not a duty) to “respect” human rights, which means they can’t make things worse. Businesses should also mitigate negative human rights impacts. I say “should” because the UNGPs aren’t binding on businesses and there’s a hodgepodge of due diligence and disclosure regimes that often conflict and overlap. But things are changing and with ESG discussions being all the rage and human rights and labor falling under the “S” factor, businesses need to do more. The EU is also finalizing mandatory human rights due diligence rules and interestingly, some powerful investors and companies are on board, likely so there’s some level of certainty and harmonization of standards. 

I’ve blogged in the past about human rights issues in sports, particularly the Olympics and World Cup in Brazil…

In 2013, acclaimed short-story writer George Saunders gave a commencement speech on kindness at Syracuse University. The speech went viral, the transcript landed on The New York Times blog, and the talk later became the basis of a book. 

The entire speech is well worth listening to, but the gist is Saunders saying: “What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.”

Oxford English Dictionary defines “kindness” as “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.”

When I think of the profession of law, “kindness,” “friendly,” “generous,” and “considerate” are sadly not among the first words that come to mind. “Analytical,” “bold,” “competitive,” “critical,” and “justice” were the first five words I would use to describe our field. 

As C.S. Lewis reportedly said, “love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness,” but I am not sure love is ever less than kindness. There may be ways, as negotiation theory teaches us, to “be soft on the person, but hard on the problem.” We can tackle injustice with vigor, but be mindful of the people across the tables from us. 

Pre-pandemic, I put a real premium on “tough love” and preparing students for the …

I have been remiss in writing to honor the life and legacy of one of our colleagues (and one of my friends), Peter J. Henning.  Peter, a Professor at Wayne State University Law School until his untimely passing, died earlier this month after wrestling with a long-term, debilitating illness.  Our mutual friend, Stetson Law Professor Ellen Podgor, published a post in his memory back on the 18th on the White Collar Crime Prof Blog.  In the post, she reflected on their long-term friendship and initial co-editorship on the White Collar Crime Prof Blog.  She began by saying: “Peter Henning was an incredible writer, scholar, and teacher. Most of all to me – he was a good friend.”  I could have started this post the same way . . . .  Ellen also linked to the announcement posted by Wayne State Law.

Peter was one among a number of colleagues whom I believe understood me and my work well.  He valued my practice experience and encouraged my use of it in research and writing.  While our work intersected most in the insider trading realm, he motivated and supported my scholarship and teaching more broadly.  He enjoyed our discussion groups…

I was thrilled to be one of the invited speakers (one of only 2 law professors) to speak at the How to Contract Conference two weeks ago. Laura Frederick, ex-Tesla, ex-BigLaw lawyer organized the best two days of CLE I’ve had in my thirty years as a lawyer (and not just because I was a speaker). Replays are are available and if you’re a law student, practicing lawyer, professor, or person who deals with contracts regularly, signing up should be a no-brainer.  If you need more convincing, here’s the line up. Sign up today. You won’t regret it. 

I begin teaching again on Wednesday.  The past few weeks have been occupied with course preparation as well as catching up on editing, writing, and other tasks abandoned during a month+ focused on the grading period, attentiveness to  a downturn in my dad’s health, Christmas, a nasty cold, and intensive physical therapy.  As I have focused on the spring semester, I continue to be concerned about helping to teach my students critical and intensive thinking, in and outside legal reasoning.  On this day honoring the life and many legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am inspired in my work by this passage from his writing–specifically, Chapter 1 of Strength to Love (1963; Pocket Book ed. 1964):

 . . . The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.

Who doubts that this toughness is one of man’s greatest needs? Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and…

As the Interim Director of UT Law’s Institute for Professional Leadership (IPL), I have the privilege of working with a student fellow. Both last year’s fellow (chosen by the founder and Director of the IPL) and this year’s fellow (selected by me) have been advanced business law students. I have had the pleasure of getting to know both well, inside and outside the classroom. 

Our Hardwick Fellows have a number of roles in the IPL. They often involve collaborative tasks. One of the most fun components is our work co-editing guest posts for the IPL’s Leading as Lawyers blog. We read and revise posts authored by students, alumni, faculty, staff, and sometimes others. We endeavor to publish a post about every two or three weeks. Click on the “follow” button on our WordPress home page to receive email notices of new posts.

The IPL’s 2021-22 Hardwick Fellow is Stefan Kostas. As we sat down to do some semester-end planning, we somehow came to the idea of co-creating a holiday season post–a dialogue capturing some of our relevant reflections. We conducted the “conversation” by e-mail and then edited it. The end result is a post entitled: “Leadership Musings, Goal-Setting, and…

I’ve been thinking about environmental, social, and governance issues (“ESG”) for almost twenty years — long before they became mainstream. As an in-house lawyer at a public company prior to joining academia, I had no choice. I teach, research, and consult on these issues now and have a whole lot of thoughts about them, which I’ll share in coming posts. 

I had the honor of presenting on “ESG and India in 2022” yesterday. ESG is a hot topic in India, as it is everywhere – – I have either attended or spoken on half a dozen panels on ESG this year to introduce the topic to lawyers. If you’re not familiar with the term or think it’s completely irrelevant to what you do for a living, here are some common classifications for investors that integrate ESG into their portfolio selection and investment process. 

Environmental: climate change, water, alternative energy, pollution & waste management

Social: human rights, workplace standards, worker health safety, diversity & equal opportunity, labor relations, land grabs

Governance: bribery & corruption, board diversity, corporate political contributions, executive compensation, disclosure & transparency, board independence, tax avoidance

If you’re a transactional lawyer, chances are you or your clients…

I’m so excited to present later this morning at the University of Tennessee College of Law Connecting the Threads Conference today at 10:45 EST. Here’s the abstract from my presentation. In future posts, I will dive more deeply into some of these issues. These aren’t the only ethical traps, of course, but there’s only so many things you can talk about in a 45-minute slot. 

All lawyers strive to be ethical, but they don’t always know what they don’t know, and this ignorance can lead to ethical lapses or violations. This presentation will discuss ethical pitfalls related to conflicts of interest with individual and organizational clients; investing with clients; dealing with unsophisticated clients and opposing counsel; competence and new technologies; the ever-changing social media landscape; confidentiality; privilege issues for in-house counsel; and cross-border issues. Although any of the topics listed above could constitute an entire CLE session, this program will provide a high-level overview and review of the ethical issues that business lawyers face.

Specifically, this interactive session will discuss issues related to ABA Model Rules 1.5 (fees), 1.6 (confidentiality), 1.7 (conflicts of interest), 1.8 (prohibited transactions with a client), 1.10 (imputed conflicts of interest), 1.13 (organizational clients), 4.3 (dealing…

At UT Law, our orientation period for the new academic year began on Friday.  I am back in the classroom today teaching a two-session introductory period course on case briefing and legal analysis.  Regular classes begin on Wednesday.  

The struggle I had in creating my syllabi this year was real.  Under current prescriptions and proscriptions, we are teaching in person, with no physical distancing, masked.  But masks are not required throughout the building.  Moreover, while vaccination is encouraged, it is not required for faculty, staff, or students, and we are prohibited from asking faculty and staff colleagues and students about vaccination status.  There have been more student accommodation requests than usual in my large-section course.  In general, COVID-19, the political divide, and social (especially racial) unrest–which overlap to create a veritable triple pandemic–are seemingly collectively conspiring against us in so many ways, including in the educational setting.  I am feeling the weight of it all.

But undaunted, I move forward in my law teaching!  I have addressed some key concerns in my syllabi this semester.  I include two sections from my syllabi below that may be of interest.  Feel free to dismiss or use these as you will.  Most of…

In 2008, my university (Belmont University) was supposedly the first to offer a social entrepreneurship major. Since then, not only have the schools offering majors in social entrepreneurships grown, but many schools have created centers, institutes, or programs dedicated to the area. Below I try to gather these social enterprise centers in universities. The vast majority are in business schools, some are collaborative across campus, and a few are located in other schools such as law, social work, or design. A few have a specifically religious take on business and social good. Happy to update this list with any centers I missed. 

Lewis Institute at Babson https://www.babson.edu/academics/centers-and-institutes/the-lewis-institute/about/# 

Christian Collective for Social Innovation at Baylor https://www.baylor.edu/externalaffairs/compassion/index.php?id=976437

Center for Social Innovation at Boston College https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/ssw/sites/center-for-social-innovation/about/

Watt Family Innovation Center at Clemson https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/watt/

Center for the Integration of Faith and Work at Dayton https://udayton.edu/business/experiential_learning/centers/cifw/index.php

CASE i3 at Duke https://sites.duke.edu/casei3/

Social Innovation Collaboratory at Fordham https://www.fordham.edu/info/23746/social_innovation_collaboratory

Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Clinic at Georgetown  https://www.law.georgetown.edu/experiential-learning/clinics/social-enterprise-and-nonprofit-clinic/

and Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown https://beeckcenter.georgetown.edu

Global Social Entrepreneurship Institute at Indiana https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/centers-institutes/international-business/programs-initiatives/global-social-entrepreneurship-institute/

Business + Impact at Michigan https://businessimpact.umich.edu

Social Enterprise Institute at Northeastern https://www.northeastern.edu/sei/

Center for Ethics and Religious…