After the Revolution in Corporate Law

Corporate law is a field that underwent as thorough a revolution in the 1980s as can be imagined, in scholarship and practice, methodological and organizational, in which finance and the economic theory of the firm were used to inform the field. The timing of this revolution was not a fortuitous occurrence: it followed a revolution in corporate finance and the theory of the firm, and was mid-wived in a period of dynamic innovation in corporate transactions. The transformation in corporate law scholarship and practice accomplished by this revolution, has important implications for legal education in the 21st century.

There is a need for greater integration of law school and management school curriculums, to ensure that law school graduates will obtain the technical proficiency necessary to be at the leading edge of corporate law practice and scholarship. In addition, the sea change in corporate law scholarship places law schools with larger faculties and associated with universities with strong finance groups at a competitive advantage in recruiting business law faculty and in maintaining a first rate business law program. Corporate law centers have emerged as an institutional device for smaller elite schools to adapt to this new environment.