The Business Law Big Time

By Professor Elizabeth Pollman

We’re excited to be hosting the National Business Law Scholars Conference here at Loyola this week. This is the first time the conference has been held on the West Coast and we’ve had record submissions. More than 80 business law professors will be coming for two jam-packed days of panels and talks (including by Loyola faculty members Michael Guttentag, Carlos Berdejo, and myself).

Highlights of the program include:

• A keynote speech by Frank Partnoy, the George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance at University of San Diego School of Law. Professor Partnoy is one of the world’s leading experts on market regulation and a frequent commentator for the Financial Times, the New York Times, and NPR. He is the author of WAIT: The Art and Science of Delay, F.I.A.S.C.O., Infectious Greed, and The Match King.
• An author-meets-readers session on the new book by Professor Michael Dorff of Southwestern Law School, Indispensable and Other Myths: The True Story of CEO Pay (Univ. of Cal. Press 2014). 
• Two renowned experts on executive compensation and corporate governance will discuss this important new work: Stephen Bainbridge, the William D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law; and Kevin Murphy, Professor of Business, Economics and Law at the USC Gould School of Law and the USC Marshall School of Business, where he was named chair of the department of finance and business economics and holds the E. Morgan Stanley Chair in Business Administration.
• A plenary panel, The Securities Fraud Class Action after Halliburton, featuring top securities law experts and scholars discussing one of the most important business law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term: 
• Stephen M. Bainbridge (UCLA School of Law) 
• Robert P. Bartlett III (UC Berkeley School of Law) 
• Mark I. Labaton (Isaacs, Friedberg & Labaton LLP) 
• Adam C. Pritchard (University of Michigan Law School) 
• Moderator and Discussant: Margaret V. Sachs (University of Georgia School of Law)

The conference also features dozens of business law scholars presenting research on timely topics including: corporate governance; business ethics; financial markets, regulation and oversight; debt and bankruptcy; cost-benefit analysis; corporate political spending and constitutional rights; mergers and acquisitions; investment fund regulation; banking; securities law; shareholder litigation; dispute resolution; business finance; and more.

The event promises to be full of lively discussion and scholarly engagement. Thanks to the conference organizers for helping us bring this all-star event to our intellectual community here at Loyola:

• Barbara Black (The University of Cincinnati College of Law)
• Eric C. Chaffee (The University of Toledo College of Law)
• Steven M. Davidoff (The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law)
• Kristin N. Johnson (Seton Hall University School of Law)
• Elizabeth Pollman (Loyola Law School, Los Angeles)
• Margaret V. Sachs (University of Georgia School of Law)