Chancellor Chandler at Illinois Next Week

Program in Business Law hosts "The Mystery of Delaware Law's Success" October 19

The University of Illinois College of Law Program in Business Law and Policy presents "The Mystery of Delaware Law's Success" with Chancellor William B. Chandler III, Delaware Court of Chancery on Friday, October 19 at 3 p.m. in the Max L. Rowe Auditorium. A reception will immediately follow in the Pedersen Pavilion

Responses to Chancellor Chandler's comments will be provided by notable business law scholars, Professor William Carney, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University; Professor Larry Ribstein, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair at the University of Illinois; and, Professor Robert Thompson, the New York Alumni Chancellor's Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University.

About Chancellor William B. Chandler III
The Honorable William B. Chandler III was appointed Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery in 1997, where he had served as Vice Chancellor since 1989. He also served as Resident Judge of the Delaware Superior Court from 1985 to 1989. The Delaware Court of Chancery is widely recognized as the nation's preeminent forum for the determination of disputes involving the internal affairs of the thousands of Delaware corporations and other business entities through which a vast amount of the world's commercial affairs is conducted. The Delaware Court of Chancery is a non-jury trial court that serves as Delaware's court of original and exclusive equity jurisdiction, and adjudicates a wide variety of cases involving trusts, real property, guardianships, civil rights, and commercial litigation.

Before his appointment to the Court, Chancellor Chandler was an associate with Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell and he served as Legal Counsel to former Governor Pete duPont. The Chancellor taught commercial law, legislative process, and remedies for two years at the University of Alabama School of Law. He is presently a member of the American Law Institute and the Delaware Bar Association. Chancellor Chandler received his law degrees from the University of South Carolina School of Law and the Yale Law School and his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware.

Conventional wisdom has held that Delaware corporate law is chosen by the majority of incorporating businesses because of its fully developed corporate code, which is richly and continuously interpreted by numerous cases decided by an intelligent and experienced judiciary. Recent commentators have criticized this argument, pointing to weaknesses in both Delaware statutory law and common law. In this discussion, supporters and critics will share their theories of the secrets to Delaware's "success."

Professor William Carney is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University, specializing in business associations, securities regulation, and corporate law. He is a well-known author, lecturer, and teacher in corporate law and the author of two leading casebooks on Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions, along with several other books and more than 50 articles and book chapters. He was a partner in the Denver firm of Holland & Hart and served as a professor at Wyoming, Michigan, Virginia, Antwerp, Belgium, the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, and the American Law Center in Moscow. He holds a U.S. patent application on a novel takeover defense. He has served as chair of the Corporate Code Revision Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Corporate Section of the State Bar of Georgia. Professor Carney earned his B.A. and LL.B. from Yale.

Professor Larry Ribstein is the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois and is the author of leading treatises on limited liability companies, partnership law, and limited liability partnerships, as well as two business associations casebooks. Professor Ribstein is the co-author, with Henry Butler, of The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle and The Constitution and the Corporation. From 1998-2001 he was co-editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review. Ribstein has written or co-authored approximately 120 articles on subjects including corporate, securities and partnership law, constitutional law, bankruptcy, film, the internet, family law, professional ethics and licensing, uniform laws, choice of law and jurisdictional competition. His articles during the past year have focused on Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate social responsibility, fiduciary duties in partnerships, fiduciary duties of corporate directors, the history of corporate and partnership law, the implications of behavioral finance for securities regulation, journalism and the portrayal of business in film. Ribstein's article, Are Partners Fiduciaries? was selected by a vote of corporate and securities laws scholars as one of the best articles of 2005.

Professor Robert Thompson is the New York Alumni's Chancellor Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. Robert B. Thompson is one of the nation's top scholars in corporations law, corporate finance and securities regulation. The author of a number of leading books and articles, many including innovative empirical research, in these and related fields, Professor Thompson has testified before committees of Congress, a state legislature, and the New York Stock Exchange. He has served since 1991 as editor of the Corporate Practice Commentator, served as an adviser for the American Law Institute's Restatement (Third) of Agency and chaired two sections of the Association of American Law Schools. During 2004-05, he was chair of Vanderbilt University's Faculty Senate. A dedicated teacher, Professor Thompson teaches corporations, securities regulation, and co-teaches joint law and business courses on equity markets and business mergers and acquisitions. He joined the law faculty in 2000 from Washington University School of Law, where he was George Alexander Madill Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

There is no registration fee for the lecture by Chancellor William Chandler. Please RSVP for the lecture via e-mail to Professor Christine Hurt, Director, University of Illinois Program in Business Law and Policy at achurt@law.uiuc.edu.

About the University of Illinois Program in Business Law and Policy The University of Illinois College of Law Program in Business Law and Policy specializes in corporate and business law and allows faculty members to focus research and teaching in this area of expertise and to create conferences, lectures and a speakers colloquium.

The Illinois Program in Law and Business Policy was created in 2006 and was coordinated during its inaugural year by Professor Larry Ribstein, the Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair. The program will be directed during the 2007-2008 academic year by Professor Christine Hurt, the Richard W. and Marie L. Corman Scholar. The Program in Law and Business Policy includes an impressive array of University of Illinois faculty members including Amitai Aviram, Ralph Brubaker, William Davey, Victor Fleischer, Christine Hurt, Robert Lawless, Andrew Morriss, Larry Ribstein, Paul Stancil, Charles Tabb, and Cynthia Williams.

The Illinois Program in Law and Business Policy also hosts public lectures in Chicago and on the UI campus and develops conferences and supports other business related activities. The Program highlights various areas of expertise within the College of Law, including empirical work, law and economics, unincorporated and closely held firms, securities markets, entrepreneurship, the role of social norms, derivatives and other complex financial instruments, corporate social responsibility, bankruptcy, and European and other international law.