Teaching

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As I reflect on the current contentious world environment, I cannot help but note the impact that electronic communication has on maintaining quality personal and professional relationships.  Although it sometimes may seem that business law professors are less impacted by domestic and global events, our work’s engagement with broader economic, social, and political issues and our individual intersectionalities can keep us in the throes of it all.  As someone who cares deeply about (and believes in the power of) human relationships and interpersonal communication (leading me to co-design and co-teach small group communication course for our leadership curriculum), I offer some food for thought here.

We all enjoy free speech.  And I respect that right deeply.  I bear a tattoo on my body (an open “speech bubble” on my right scapula) as a symbol of that belief.

I also believe in the careful, considerate exercise of that important right.  I have written a bit about this before, in another blog space, arguing for well considered communication.  My conclusion in that post?

Just because a person can say something in the exercise of their rights to free speech, does not mean that the person should say something. And if someone…

I’m a law professor, the general counsel of a medtech company, a podcaster, and I design and deliver courses on a variety of topics as a consultant. I think about and use generative AI daily and it’s really helped boost my productivity. Apparently, I’m unusual among lawyers. According to a Wolter’s Kluwers Future Ready Lawyer report that surveyed 700 legal professionals in the  US and EU, only 15% of lawyers are using generative AI right now but 73% expect to use it next year. 43% of those surveyed see it as an opportunity, 25% see it as a threat, and 26% see it as both.

If you’re planning to be part of the 73% and you practice in the US, here are some ethical implications with citations to select model rules. A few weeks ago, I posted here about business implications that you and your clients should consider.

  • How can you stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in AI technology and best practices, ensuring that you continue to adapt and evolve as a legal professional in an increasingly technology-driven world? Rule 1.1 (Competence)
  • How can AI tools be used effectively and ethically to enhance your practice, whether in legal research,

…

 

BLPB(DiversityProgramGraphic)

RWU Law looks forward to the next installment of the Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series:

HOW DOES DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING PEDAGOGY FIT IN BUSINESS ISSUES AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS CLASSES? LEADING WITH DEIB IN WILLS, TRUSTS, ESTATES, INSURANCE, CONTRACTS, AND TAXATION LAW CLASSES

Wednesday, October 4 | 2:00 – 3:00 PM EST

Zoom Webinar Registration here.

Details about the Featured Speakers & Program here.

Emory’s Center for Transactional Law and Practice has extended the deadline for proposal submissions for the 8th Biennial Conference on the Teaching of Transactional Law and Skills, scheduled for October 6-7, 2023.  Quoting from the email message from Sue Payne, Katherine Koops, and Kelli Pittman:

We know that mid-August is a busy time.  Therefore, by popular demand, we are extending the deadline for submitting a proposal through August 31st.  Submit your proposal here.

We are also extending the deadline for you to nominate a colleague or yourself for the Tina L. Stark Award for Teaching Excellence through August 31st.  Submit your nominations here.

I know many of you have valuable things to offer at this conference, which always is among my favorites.  I have picked up wonderful ideas for my teaching–things I do not hear in other conferences. I hope you will submit a proposal and attend.

It’s been little while since I posted here, but long-time readers of theis blog will not be surprised by the topic.  I am happy to say that, after a lot of work with an exceptional co-author who shares my concerns, Professor Samantha Prince from Penn State Dickinson Law, we have an article documenting the problems with mislabeling LLCs and providing a variety of solutions.  I have been writing on this for nearly 15 years, and unfortunately, not a lot has changed. 

The article, An LLC By Any Other Name Is Still Not A Corporation, is now available on SSRN, here, and has been submitted for publication. In the meantime, we welcome thoughts and comments.  

Here is the abstract: 

Business entities have their own unique characteristics. Entrepreneurs and lawyers who represent them select an entity structure based on the business’s current and projected needs. The differing needs of each business span across myriad topics such as capital requirements, taxation, employee benefits, and personal liability protection. These choices present advantages and disadvantages many of which are built into the type of entity chosen.

It is critically important that people, especially lawyers, recognize the difference between entities such as corporations…

Greetings from SEALS, where I’ve just left a packed room of law professors grappling with some thorny issues related to ChatGPT4, Claude 2, Copilot, and other forms of generative AI. I don’t have answers to the questions below and some are well above my pay grade, but I am taking them into account as I prepare to teach courses in transactional skills; compliance, corporate governance, and sustainability; and ethics and technology this Fall.

In no particular order, here are some of the questions/points raised during the three-hour session. I’ll have more thoughts on using AI in the classroom in a future post.

  1. AI detectors that schools rely on have high false positives for nonnative speakers and neurodivergent students and they are easy to evade. How can you reliably ensure that students aren’t using AI tools such as ChatGPT if you’ve prohibited it?
  2. If we allow the use of AI in classrooms, how do we change how we assess students?
  3. If our goal is to teach the mastery of legal skills, what are the legal skills we should teach related to the use of AI? How will our students learn critical thinking skills if they can

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I am a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Leadership.  This year, members of the  have been hosting a series of Zoom forums on teaching.  The remaining forums (although more may be scheduled) are set forth below.

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 – 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. EST – Joan Heminway, Interim Director, Institute for Professional Leadership and Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee College of Law ,and Martin Brinkley, Dean and Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina School of Law

Monday, September 25, 2023 – 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST – Lee Fisher, Dean, Cleveland State University College of Law

Wednesday, October 18, 2023 – 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST – Kellye Testy, President and CEO, LSAC, and Hillary Sale, Associate Dean for Strategy, Georgetown University

You can register for a session by clicking on the link for that session.  As you can see, I am cohosting Wednesday’s forum, which will feature two adjunct professors who have worked with full-time faculty to design and implement law school leadership courses.

Business law and leadership are naturally related.  The Section on Leadership…

Depending on who you talk to, you get some pretty extreme perspectives on generative AI. In a former life, I used to have oversight of the lobbying and PAC money for a multinational company. As we all know, companies never ask to be regulated. So when an industry begs for regulation, you know something is up. 

Two weeks ago, I presented the keynote speech to the alumni of AESE, Portugal’s oldest business school, on the topic of my research on business, human rights, and technology with a special focus on AI. If you’re attending Connecting the Threads in October, you’ll hear some of what I discussed.

I may have overprepared, but given the C-Suite audience, that’s better than the alternative. For me that meant spending almost 100 hours  reading books, articles, white papers, and watching videos by data scientists, lawyers, ethicists, government officials, CEOs, and software engineers. 

Because I wanted the audience to really think about their role in our future, I spent quite a bit of time on the doom and gloom scenarios, which the Portuguese press highlighted. I cited the talk by the creators of the Social Dilemma, who warned about the dangers of social…

Emory2023(Announcement)

8th Biennial Conference on the Teaching of Transactional Law and Skills

PREPARING FUTURE LAWYERS TO DRAFT CONTRACTS, DO DEALS, AND TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS

October 6-7, 2023 | Atlanta, GA

______________

Call for Proposals and Nominations for
Tina L. Stark Teaching Excellence Award

Call for Proposals

Emory’s Center for Transactional Law and Practice is delighted to open the Call for Proposals for its eighth biennial conference on the teaching of transactional law and skills. We welcome your proposals related to our theme – “Preparing Future Lawyers to Draft Contracts, Do Deals, and Take Care of Business.” 

By design, our theme is broad.  We see it as encompassing everything from how to teach the nuts-and-bolts of contract drafting through how to help students understand and advance a deal.  In addition, we would like to know what you are doing to familiarize students with business and finance.  On a more abstract level, consider leading a discussion about how to define the core values and guiding principles foundational to a successful transactional law practice. Or reporting your success encouraging students to engage in self-reflection about their professional identities as deal lawyers. 

Each session will be 60 minutes long.  Given this time limitation, each session

…

The University of Tennessee College of Law’s business law journal, Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law, recently published my essay, “The Fiduciary-ness of Business Associations.”  You can find the essay here.  This essay–or parts of it, anyway–has been rattling around in my brain for a bit.   It is nice on a project like this to be able to get the words out on a page and release all that tension building up inside as you fashion your approach.

The abstract for the essay is included below. 

This essay offers a window and perspective on recent fiduciary-related legislative developments in business entity law and identifies and reflects in limited part on related professional responsibility questions impacting lawyers advising business entities and their equity owners. In addition—and perhaps more pointedly—the essay offers commentary on legal change and the legislative process for state law business associations amendments in and outside the realm of fiduciary duties. To accomplish these purposes, the essay first provides a short description of the position of fiduciary duties in U.S. statutory business entity law and offers a brief account of 21st century business entity legislation that weakens the historically central role of fiduciary duties in unincorporated…