Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Law
Alternative Business Structures: Good For The Public, Good For The Lawyers, Jayne R. Reardon
Alternative Business Structures: Good For The Public, Good For The Lawyers, Jayne R. Reardon
St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics
There has been a shift in consumer behavior over the last several decades. To keep up with the transforming consumer, many professions have changed the way they do business. Yet lawyers continue to deliver services the way they have since the founding of our country. Bar associations and legal ethicists have long debated the idea of allowing lawyers to practice in “alternative business structures,” where lawyers and nonlawyers can co-own and co-manage a business to deliver legal services. This Article argues these types of businesses inhibit lawyers’ ability to provide better legal services to the public and that the legal …
Assessing The Assessment: B Lab’S Effort To Measure Companies’ Benevolence, Michael B. Dorff
Assessing The Assessment: B Lab’S Effort To Measure Companies’ Benevolence, Michael B. Dorff
Seattle University Law Review
For benefit corporations to persuade their various audiences that they are as beneficial for society as they claim, they need reliable assessments of their social performance. Even if assessments were not required by most states’ benefit corporation statutes, it is difficult to imagine the benefit corporation form could gain credibility without them. Creating measurement tools for these assessments poses the twin challenges of balancing simplicity against validity and weighing vision against inclusiveness. This article examines how B Lab’s popular assessment tool engages these challenges.
Repricing Limited Liability And Separate Entity Status, William H. Clark Jr., D. Alicia Hickok
Repricing Limited Liability And Separate Entity Status, William H. Clark Jr., D. Alicia Hickok
Seattle University Law Review
In this Article we discuss how U.S. entity law has evolved in recent decades so that (i) limited liability has become available to the owners of any form of business organization, and (ii) all forms of business organizations are now seen as having the status of entities separate from their owners. Those changes have occurred without significant consideration of their consequences or what they mean for the public policies underlying entity law. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness by businesses that promotion of social benefits and/or reduction of externalities is in the firm’s best interests. There has …