Visiting Scholar Joan Heminway Speaks on Transactional Lawyers and Law Reform – 3/23
As part of the law school’s participation in a regional faculty scholar exchange, we will host Joan Heminway from the University of Tennessee for a scholarly presentation on Monday, March 23, at noon, in room 326. Prof. Heminway’s talk is entitled “Dealmakers as Lawmakers: Toward a more Sustainable, Effective Leadership Role for Transactional Business Lawyers in Legislative Law Reform.” The abstract of her paper follows:
Business lawyers, like lawyers in other practice settings, are catalysts of law reform. One need only inspect the law reform process that led to marked changes in Delaware’s venerable corporate law in 2024 and 2025 to understand the effect of business lawyers—including, especially, transactional business lawyers—on business law. Yet, none of this is new. Many states, including Delaware, have regularly engaged the business law bar in business law reform efforts. How can transactional business lawyers best lead in recommending new business legislation or amendments to existing business law statutes? How might they efficaciously vet the legislative proposals of others?
This essay sets out to propose some preliminary answers to these and other related questions, focusing on transactional business lawyers acting outside the lawyer-client relationship. The main areas of business law impacted include both corporate law and unincorporated business association law, including principally limited liability company law. Questions regarding the engagement of the business law bar in legislative efforts are especially important ones at this moment for several overarching reasons: the advent of the DExit movement, the emergent role of complex technologies as a driver of legislative change, and the increasing importance of process to lawyer leadership in times of change. Core audiences for the essay comprise actual and aspiring business lawyers, business law (and other) instructors teaching in law schools, and legislators who are open to engaging with lawyers in more meaningful ways as they proceed with law reform.
