The University of Tennessee College of Law’s third annual Business Law: Connecting the Threads conference drew professors, students, and other attendees from across the country to learn more about business law.
Throughout the day on Sept. 27, professors whose scholarship and ideas are regularly featured on Business Law Prof Blog, presented on trending business law topics and engaged University of Tennessee College of Law professors and students to expand those presentations with their input.
The student editorial team of Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law organized the event under the guidance of Professors Joan Heminway and George Kuney.
Kuney said the conference provided an opportunity for University of Tennessee College of Law faculty and students, whose interests center upon business law, to present and interact with those who share similar interests.
“It also provides a day’s worth of quality continuing legal education credits to practitioners in the area, who get to hear from presenters from other areas of the country, reflecting different perspectives,” Kuney said.
Featured presentations throughout the day included:
Professor Benjamin Edwards of the University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law discussing new federal and state regulations on investment advising;
Professor Douglas K. Moll of the University of Houston Law Center lobbying in favor of judicial protection commonly afforded to minority shareholders in closely held corporations to be extended to minority shareholders in limited liability corporations;
Professor Stefan Padfield of the University of Akron School of Law exploring the ideas of totalitarian nudges, illusory externalities, and utopian benefits;
Dean and Professor Doug Fershee of Creighton University School of Law dispelling the widely held belief that corporate directors are under a legal obligation to maximize profits for their shareholders;
Professors Joan Heminway, Thomas Plank, and Don Leatherman of the University of Tennessee College of Law presenting their varying perspectives on mergers;
Professor Haskell Murray of Belmont University sharing business statements that demonstrate a shift of focus from generating shareholder wealth toward a wider commitment to all stakeholders; and
Professor Colleen Baker of the University of Oklahoma detailing how cloud-based banking has produced significant benefits that are accompanied by the risk of an infrastructure collapse.
Kuney said the College of Law is making tentative plans to host a fourth Connecting the Threads event in 2020.
In addition, the college will host the National Business Law Scholars Conference on June 18 and 19. Planning is still underway, but session topics are likely to center upon insider trading, mergers and acquisitions, cryptocurrencies, securities litigation, the #MeToo movement, and corporate social responsibility.
More than 100 business law scholars and professors are expected to attend.