Professor Morley’s Article Among Top 10 for 2017

“The Common Law Corporation: The Power of the Trust in Anglo-American Business History” by Professor John Morley ’06 was selected as one of the Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2017 by Corporate Practice Commentator. The list was a result of the publication’s annual poll of teachers in corporate and securities law and selected from more than 565 articles suggested.

Professor Morley’s article was published in the Columbia Law Review. The essay questions the importance of the corporate form especially in contrast to common law trust and “lays the groundwork for a new account of the corporate form and its place in the development of modern business.”

Morley is a leading expert on the regulation and structure of investment funds, including mutual funds, private equity funds, and hedge funds. His research on investment funds is one application of a broader interest in the law and economics of organization. Morley’s other research on organization includes a study of why law firms collapse and a history of the common law trust as a substitute for the corporate form. He also writes about the law of trusts and estates and serves as the reporter for the Uniform Directed Trust Act. At Yale Law School, Morley has taught classes on business organizations, securities regulation, trusts and estates, and investment management regulation.