Law Commons^™

The Nil Glass Ceiling, Tan Boston

University of Richmond Law Review

Name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) produced nearly $1 billion in earnings for intercollegiate athletes in its inaugural year. Analysts argue that the shockingly high totals result from disproportionate
institutional support for revenue-generating sports.

Although NIL earnings have soared upwards of eight figures to date, first-year data reveals that significant gender disparities exist. Such disparities raise Title IX concerns, which this Article illustrates using a hypothetical university and NIL collective. As such, this Article reveals how schools can facilitate gender discrimination through NIL collectives, contrary to Title IX. Although plainly applicable to NIL transactions in which schools are involved, Title IX’s …

Executive Order 14036: Promoting Competition?, Holly E. Fredericksen

University of Richmond Law Review

Four million Americans left their jobs in July 2021. By the end of that month, the number of open jobs reached an all-time high: 10.9 million. Employees are walking out the door in record numbers as part of a trend so remarkable, we even gave it a name: the Great Resignation. With 4.3 million Americans quitting their jobs in January 2022 and 11.3 million job openings, the Great Resignation is only gaining momentum and showing no signs of slowing down.

And as a consequence of employees exiting in droves, employers are hurting. According to The Work Institute, turnover costs employers …

Zombies Attack Inadvertent Partnerships!—How Undead Precedents Killed By Uniform Statutes Still Roam The Reporters, Joseph K. Leahy

University of Richmond Law Review

Recently, the Texas Supreme Court breathed new life into some ancient zombies—zombie precedents, that is!—which have long lurked in the shadows of the nation’s partnership formation caselaw. This Article tells the story of those undead cases—describing them, debunking them, and plotting their demise.

This zombie tale begins with the supposed black-letter law of partnership formation. In nearly every state, formation of a general partnership is governed by one of two uniform partnership acts. Under both acts, a business relationship ripens into a partnership whenever the statutory definition of partnership is satisfied. The parties’ intent to become “partners” (or not) is …

The Internet Of Torts: Expanding Civil Liability Standards To Address Corporate Remote Interference, Rebecca Crootof

Law Faculty Publications

Thanks to the proliferation of internet-connected devices that constitute the “Internet of Things” (“IoT”), companies can now remotely and automatically alter or deactivate household items. In addition to empowering industry at the expense of individuals, this remote interference can cause property damage and bodily injury when an otherwise operational car, alarm system, or implanted medical device abruptly ceases to function.

Even as the potential for harm escalates, contract and tort law work in tandem to shield IoT companies from liability. Exculpatory clauses limit civil remedies, IoT devices’ bundled object/service nature thwarts implied warranty claims, and contractual notice of remote interference …

Agency: Married Women Traders Of Nantucket, 1765-1865, Mary L. Heen

Law Faculty Publications

Before the enactment of separate property and contract rights for married women, generations of married women in seaport cities and towns conducted business as merchants, traders and shopkeepers. The first part of this article shows how private law facilitated their business activities through traditional agency law, the use of powers of attorney, trade accounts and family business networks. These arrangements, largely hidden from public view in family papers, letters, and diaries, permitted married women to enter into contracts, to buy and sell property, and to appear in court. Private law, like equity, thus provided a more flexible alternative to the …

Boilerplate’S False Dichotomy, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The argument against enforcing boilerplate contracts (contracts that no one reads) seems clear. Indeed, if this were a court case we would say that the jury is in; the evidence against boilerplate is overwhelming. Yet the judge has yet to render judgment. Courts continue to enforce boilerplate terms, and even those scholars who have exposed boilerplate as an emperor with no clothes are reluctant to gaze upon its nakedness and condemn its use.

This reluctance originates in an assumption that pervades the boilerplate debate—namely, that courts and commentators alike view boilerplate as necessary to the modern transaction. When asked to …

Bespoke Discovery, Jessica Erickson

Law Faculty Publications

The U.S. legal system gives contracting parties significant freedom to customize the procedures that will govern their future disputes. With forum selection clauses, parties can decide where they will litigate future disputes. With fee-shifting provisions, they can choose who will pay for these suits. And with arbitration clauses, they can make upfront decisions to opt out of the traditional legal system altogether. Parties can also waive their right to appeal, their right to a jury trial, and their right to file a class action. Bespoke procedure, in other words, is commonplace in the United States.

Far less common, however, are …

The Intersection Of Contract Law, Reproductive Technology, And The Market: Families In The Age Of Art, Deborah Zalesne

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corporate And Business Law, Laurence V. Parker Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

Over the past three years, there have been a number of legislative changes to Virginia's business entity statutes. In Part I,this article highlights the changes to the Virginia Stock Corporation Act ("VSCA") and the Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act ('"VNSCA"). Part II highlights changes to the Limited Liability Company Act ("LLC Act"). Part III summarizes Virginia's new intrastate crowdfunding law. The Supreme Court of Virginia has also addressed several significant issues over the last three years, including the applicability of appraisal rights in a stepped transaction. Part IV reviews several of the significant cases during this period.

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

An App For Third Party Beneficiaries, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

Every year, more than 100 reported court opinions consider the question of whether an outsider can sue for damages under a contract made by others-in part because the law is so ambiguous. While contract enforcement by a third party is controlled largely by the facts of the particular case, it also materially depends upon the relevant legal standards. At present, not just the standards, but also the reasons for these standards, are unclear. Eighty years ago, Lon Fuller, a professor teaching contracts at a then-Southern law school, and William Perdue, a student at that school, significantly clarified and improved decision …

An App For Third Party Beneficiaries, Alexandra W. Cook, J. Kyle Lowder, Michelle Sonntag

Law Student Publications

Every year, more than 100 reported court opinions consider the question of whether an outsider can sue for damages under a contract made by others-in part because the law is so ambiguous. While contract enforcement by a third party is controlled largely by the facts of the particular case, it also materially depends upon the relevant legal standards. At present, not just the standards, but also the reasons for these standards, are unclear. Eighty years ago, Lon Fuller, a professor teaching contracts at a then-Southern law school, and William Perdue, a student at that school, significantly clarified and improved decision …

A Corporation's Securities Litigation Gambit: Fee-Shifting Provisions That Defend Against Fraud-On-The-Market, Steven W. Lippman

University of Richmond Law Review

Part I discusses the current landscape of securities class action litigation. It explains how and why the suits are initiated and dis­ cusses the outcome of Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (HalliburtonII).19 PartII discusses the framework for the proposi­tion of this comment. It provides a brief history of significant cas­ es and incorporates several recent cases that have opened the door to the possibility of implementing fee-shifting clauses. It concludes with a comparison to other contractual provisions cur­ rently being implemented by corporations and also analyzes fee­ shifting provisions under federal preemption. Part III explains why implementing …

An Experiment On The Role Of Penalty Clauses And The Level Of Legal Remedies For Breach Of Contract On The Prevention Of The Hold-Up Problem In Colombian Contract Law, Juan Antonio Gaviria

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

This article analyzes the results of an experiment with Colombian students testing the theories thatpenalty clauses and a high level of legal remedies for breach of contract prevent the hold-up problem. While the results of this experiment failed to statistically confirm the predictions of the theory, they did not reject them. Furthermore,the results show that held-up parties were better off after the parties renegotiated the contract when either a penalty clause was provided or the law increased the level of legal remedies in comparison with a benchmark scenario. On the other hand, the results are a contribution to the field …

Extrinsic Evidence, Parol Evidence, And The Parol Evidence Rule: A Call For Courts To Use The Reasoning Of The Restatements Rather Than The Rhetoric Of Common Law, Timothy Archer, Shalayne Davis, David G. Epstein

Law Student Publications

This article is an example of what Professor Richard Epstein would call "Contracts small." According to Professor Richard Epstein, "'Contracts small' relates to contract law at the doctrinal level; it focuses on the rules of contract formation and performance; the everyday 'stuff of lawyer's law.' "This article looks to the Restatement of Contracts (hereafter "Restatement") and the Restatement (Second) of Contracts (hereafter "Restatement Second") for answers to the questions raised by the two problems. The Restatements generally have both been praised and condemned for their focus on doctrinal issues-on what Richard Epstein calls the "everyday stuff of lawyer's law." As …

Reclaim This! Getting Credit Seller Rights In Bankruptcy Right, Lawrence Ponoroff

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vertical Boilerplate, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

Despite what we learn in law school about the “meeting of the minds,” most contracts are merely boilerplate—take-it-or-leave-it propositions. Negotiation is nonexistent; we rely on our collective market power as consumers to regulate contracts’ content. But boilerplate imposes certain information costs because it often arrives late in the transaction and is hard to understand. If those costs get too high, then the market mechanism fails. So how high are boilerplate’s information costs? A few studies have attempted to measure them, but they all use a “horizontal” approach—i.e., they sample a single stratum of boilerplate and assume that it represents the …

Click To Agree, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The author reports on an analysis that he’s done of the cost to the consumer of actually reading and comprehending the boilerplate contracts that accompanied four computers that he bought, compared to potential consumer benefit.

Who's The Author? A Bright-Line Rule For Specially Commissioned Works Made For Hire, Richard D. Palmieri

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

It's About Time, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

This Article critically evaluates the view widely held by courts that contract claims for lost leisure or personal time do not justify compensation. The thesis of this Article is that while the conventional judicial wisdom may be correct about some forms of nonpecuniary loss, it is entirely wrong regarding lost time. After setting aside assumptions, I show that traditional arguments against this form of recovery are deeply flawed Most importantly, I rely on the recognition of hedonic damages by forensic economists to debunk the myth that loss of time is no more than an everyday aspect of life not worthy …

A Short And Happy Guide To Contracts, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

In this book we will reveal the rules of contract law in as straightforward and clear a fashion as they permit. But we will also talk some about policy and the difference between the two. Policy reflects the normative objectives we want to attain, and the rules are the vehicles for getting us there. In this book, we are going to break the subject of contracts into seven short questions: 1. Has a deal been made? 2. Is the deal enforceable? 3. Are there defenses to enforcement of the deal? 4 What are the terms of the deal? 5. When …

Using Contract Terms To Get Ahead Of Prospective Ediscovery Costs And Burdens In Commercial Litigation, Jay Brudz, Jonathan M. Redgrave

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

During the course of the twentieth century, American and international businesses reacted to the increasing costs and uncertainties of the American civil legal system by trying to create certainty through contractual provisions wherever possible. In particular, businesses developed contractual provisions that set forth procedural boundaries to potential disputes for the purpose of providing greater certainty as to where the dispute would be heard, who would hear it, and what laws would apply. For example, choice of venue and choice of law provisions became commonplace. In addition, clauses dictating the use of alternative dispute resolution procedures were also widely adopted. Substantively, …

Wills, Trusts, And Estates, J. William Gray Jr., Katherine E. Ramsey

University of Richmond Law Review

The 2011 session of the Virginia General Assembly enacted wills, trusts, and estates legislation that: (i) eliminated a potential federal transfer tax trap in inter vivos marital trusts, (ii) interpreted transfer tax formula clauses in light of recent changes in federal law, and (iii) adopted the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act. Three other legislative enactments and seven opinions of the Supreme Court of Virginia during the twelve months ending June 1, 2011, addressed issues affecting this field. In addition to addressing those developments, this article summarizes a recent federal district court opinion that dealt with a significant …

Response To Reasonable Expectations In Sociocultural Context, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

The Article starts 6 (and ends)7 with the premise that contract law should enforce the reasonable expectations of the parties. This is a hard premise to challenge.8 And an even harder premise to apply.9 The Article recognizes the two problems with applying this premise: (1) how does a court decide what expectations are “reasonable,”10 and (2) what does a court do when the contracting parties have different reasonable expectations.11 The Article then uses two cases to illustrate how “sociocultural dissonance between a judge and contracting party”12 exacerbates these problems.

The Recent Amendments To Ucc Article 9: Problems And Solutions, David Frisch

University of Richmond Law Review

This article examines three of the forthcoming amendments to Article 9 in some detail: (1) the required name of an individual on a financing statement; (2) the perfection of collateral following the debtor's relocation to a new jurisdiction; and (3) collateral acquired by a new debtor. In the interest of brevity, the discussion of other, less noteworthy, amendments of the statutory text and Official Comments is not as complete. The primary purpose of this article is to offer guidance to legal professionals confronting particular issues under current and future Article 9.

Narrative And The Origins Of Law, Allison Anna Tait, Luke P. Norris

Law Faculty Publications

In order to understand these distinct narratives of legal origin through the tools of narratology, we will proceed in several steps. First, we will define more precisely the set of social contract theories that we consider. We will discuss our decision to narrow the focus down to two social contract theorists in particular, one contemporary and one classical, John Rawls and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These two theorists seem worlds apart in many respects—yet the tools of narratology will enable us to see their shared enterprise. Second, the tools of narratology will help us to identify and discuss the component parts that …

Contract Law's Two "P.E.'S": Promissory Estoppel And The Parole Evidence Rule, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

This article is about "P.E." Not the physical education class that you looked forward to in junior high school, but the two "P.E.'s" you dreaded in your first-year law school contracts class: (1) promissory estoppel and (2) the parol evidence rule.' Each is plenty complicated standing alone. This article considers what happens if the two bump into each other. More specifically, this article asks and answers the question: Should the parol evidence rule apply to promissory estoppel cases?

Reliance On Oral Promises: Statute Of Frauds And Promissory Estoppel, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

Reliance on oral promises is the basis not only for law school hypotheticals but also for real world litigation. Consider the following hypothetical based on the 1970 Supreme Court of Hawaii decision in Mcintosh v. Murphy: Tex moved from Lubbock, Texas to Oklahoma to work for Murphy Motors Chevrolet-Oldsmobile, an Okmulgee car dealership. Tex signed a lease for an apartment in Okmulgee. After two months as assistant sales manager, Murphy Motors fired Tex. Tex sued Murphy Motors alleging breach of an alleged oral agreement that she would be employed for two years. It is understandable that a jury might not …

The Reverse-Morals Clause: The Unique Way To Save Talent's Reputation And Money In A New Era Of Corporate Crimes And Scandals, Porcher L. Taylor Iii, Fernando M. Pinguelo, Timothy D. Cedrone

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

This article sails into the largely unchartered waters of reverse-morals clauses because, to our knowledge, there are no law review or law journal articles that substantially address this still nascent area of law.²⁵ Similarly, our research has not revealed any state or federal cases involving reverse-morals clauses.²⁶ Nor has an actual talent contract containing such a clause been publicly revealed, either in terms of language or the identification of the parties to such a clause,²⁷ although reportedly "an increasingly larger number" of talent are now asking for reverse-morals clauses in the wake of the Enron fallout and …

A Patent Panacea?: The Promise Of Corbinized Claim Construction, Jonathan L. Moore

Law Student Publications

A patent's claims define the scope of a patent-holder's right to exclude others. Because patent infringement actions often hinge on how a court construes claim terms, the interpretative approach that a court uses has a significant effect on the scope ofpatent rights. This article examines claim construction through the lens of contract law. In theory, the Federal Circuit has explicitly rejected the application of contract interpretation principles to claim construction, despite historical acceptance of the patent-contract analogy. In practice, however, the Federal Circuit applies the theory of contract interpretation espoused by Samuel Williston, a theory that focuses on the text …