Busy, Productive 2007-08 for YLS Center for the Study of Corporate Law

The Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law was busier than ever this past academic year, organizing more events in 2007-2008 than in any year since it was founded in 1999.

The Center rolled out several new initiatives, including panel discussions designed to inform students about careers in corporate law and finance. At the first panel in November, students learned about the types of work performed by corporate lawyers in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, finance, and other practice areas. In April, they learned about opportunities in banking, hedge funds, private equity, and other finance-related fields. The career panels are co-sponsored with the Career Development Office and the Yale Law and Business Society.
 
Also initiated this year was the Bert W. Wasserman Workshop in Law and Finance, established by Craig Wasserman ’86 in memory of his late father, a distinguished leader in the field of finance. The inaugural Wasserman Workshop in November featured a presentation by Andrew Metrick on “The Economics of Private Equity Funds.” Metrick, previously with the Wharton School, is now a finance professor at the Yale School of Management. Subsequent speakers were Holger Mueller of NYU’s Stern School of Business, Cindy Alexander of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and Paul Mahoney ’84 of the University of Virginia School of Law.

Finally, the Center expanded its very successful alumni breakfast program, held regularly in New York City, to Washington D.C. Co-sponsored with Alumni Affairs, the program offers panel discussions on current topics in business law. Panelists typically include academics, government officials, and members of the bar and business community.

Other 2007-2008 highlights included:

• The John R. Raben/Sullivan & Cromwell fellow lecture by University of Chicago finance professor Raghuram Rajan on “Landed Interests and Financial Underdevelopment in the United States.”

• The Judge Ralph Winter Lecture on Corporate Law and Corporate Governance by Harvard law professor Reinier Kraakman ’79 on “Exit, Voice, and Liability: Legal Dimensions of Organizational Structure.”

• The Weil, Gotshal & Manges Roundtable on Corporate Law and Governance, with paper presentations by Indiana Kelley School of Business professor Jun Yang on “Inside the Black Box: The Role and Composition of Compensation Peer Groups” and Harvard Economics professor Andrei Shleifer on “The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins” and “The Divergence of Legal Procedures,” as well as an afternoon panel discussion on “The Impact of the Credit Crunch on Corporate Transactions and Finance.”

• The Marvin A. Chirelstein Colloquium on Contemporary Issues in Law and Business, wherein students learned about emerging practice and regulatory issues and got a sense of the varieties of business-related careers that distinguished law school graduates have pursued.

Roberta Romano ’80, Oscar M. Ruebhausen Professor of Law, is Director of the Center for the Study of Corporate Law; John Morley ’06 is the John R. Raben/Sullivan & Cromwell Executive Director.