Program Overview
The Wisconsin Business Law Initiative will support and advance the business law work of the University of Wisconsin Law School. Our overarching goal, consistent with Wisconsin's long tradition of focusing on law and lawyering as actually practiced, is to better connect our business law faculty to business lawyers in Wisconsin and beyond. To this end, the BLI will collaborate with other law school programs, centers, and initiatives that address business law matters as part of their mission, including the Program in Real Estate, Land Use, and Community Development and the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic.
In scholarship, we expect to do this through targeted programming, symposia and roundtables (including those described below). In teaching, we expect to do this by supporting experiential business law work, such as the Transactional Skills Workshop and the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. In service, we expect to do this by, among other things, providing continuing legal education to business lawyers.
History
The University of Wisconsin Law School has long made important contributions to the development of business law. To name but a few:
Willard Hurst's pathbreaking studies of commercial practices in Wisconsin, as well as the corporate form and the monetary system, changed the way we approach legal history and the study of business law.
Charles Bunn was the first Reporter of Article 1 of the Uniform Commercial Code.
Stewart Macaulay's qualitative empirical analyses of business practices in the shadow of contract law shaped the thinking of generations of scholars.
The work of Bill Whitford and Lynn LoPucki (now of UCLA) set the standard by which all other empirical business bankruptcy scholarship is measured.
The University of Wisconsin Law School has, in other words, long been home to important and path-breaking business law work. The Wisconsin Business Law Initiative seeks to continue and advance this tradition.
Affiliated Faculty
Jonathan Lipson
Director, Wisconsin Business Law Initiative
Foley & Lardner Professor of Law
Lisa Alexander
Assistant Professor of Law
Shalanda Baker
Hastie Fellow
Susannah Camic
Assistant Professor of Law
Allison Christians
Associate Professor of Law
Kenneth B. Davis, Jr.
Professor of Law
Eric Englund
Co-Director, Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic
Vilas Research Fellow & Professor of Law; Associate Director, INSITE
Darian Ibrahim
Associate Professor of Law
Heinz Klug
Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development
Director, Global Legal Studies Center
Sida Liu
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Law
Stewart Macaulay
Professor of Law Emeritus
Cary Martin
Hastie Fellow
Thomas Mitchell
Associate Professor of Law
Faculty Director, Program in Real Estate, Land Use, and Community Development.
John Ohnesorge
Associate Professor of Law
Director, East Asian Legal Studies Center
Margaret Raymond
Professor of Law and Dean, University of Wisconsin Law School
Anne Smith
Co-Director, Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic
Cheryl Rosen Weston
Lecturer, University of Wisconsin Law School --she mentioned a new title
CEO, The Douglas Stewart Company
Bill Whitford
Professor of Law Emeritus
Jason Yackee
Assistant Professor of Law
Events
September 23, 2011
The Causes of Compliance in International Relations: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Financial Transparency
Presented by Shima Baradaran, Associate Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. Invitation-only faculty workshop hosted by Professor Jason Yackee and cosponsored by the Business Law Initiative.
October 10, 2011
The Practice of Law in 2011: The Sad and Not So Sad Change From a Profession to a Business
Presented by Michael E. Meyer, Managing Partner, DLA Piper, LLP. Sponsored by the Program in Real Estate, Land Use, and Community Development and cosponsored by the Law School's Business Law Initiative. Hosted by Thomas Mitchell, Associate Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Program in Real Estate, Land Use, and Community Development. This event is free and open to Faculty, Students and Academic Staff of the University of Wisconsin community as well as to practicing attorneys.
Attorney Michael E. Meyer, managing partner of the Los Angeles Offices of DLA Piper LLP (US), presented on ethics as well as the thought processes engaged in by major law firms as they maneuver through the hiring process, establish salaries, negotiate fee arrangements, establish starting salaries, deal with diversity issues, make pro bono work commitments and decide who has earned the right to become a partner. This lecture provided useful insight into the practice of law for law students, practicing attorneys, and those studying the practice of law. See the program website.
November 18-19, 2011
Wisconsin Law Review Symposium: Who's in the House? The Changing Role and Nature of In-House and General Counsel
This symposium brought together leading scholars and attorneys to discuss the under-explored, but growing, role of in-house and corporate general counsel in the rapidly changing market for legal services. It also launched the Business Law Initiative. Keynote speakers included Cynthia M. Fornelli (Executive Director, Center for Audit Quality Control), Gail A. Lione, (Retired Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Harley-Davidson, Inc.), and David Wilkins (Director of the Program on the Legal Profession and the Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry at Harvard Law School). Hosted by Professor Jonathan Lipson and the Wisconsin Law Review Staff, with multiple cosponsors. CLE Approved in Wisconsin (up to 12 CLE Credits, including 5 EPR) and in Illinois (9.5 MCLE credits, including 4.5 for professional responsibility). For more information, see the symposium website.
