Law Commons^™

“The Last Acceptable Prejudice”: Student Harassment Of Gay Public School Teachers, Matthew Bernstein

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

In the United States, where the “marketplace of ideas” is a key social philosophy, few Americans receive the benefits of attending public schools with “out” gay and lesbian teachers. Even in an era where civil rights for homosexual public employees are increasing, more than one quarter of adults in the United States continue to believe that school boards should be permitted to fire teachers known to be homosexual. Amid a permissive legal climate that too easily puts aside the rights of teachers in a myopic focus on students, incidents where students harass teachers based on the teachers’ sexual orientation go …

Continued Disparities In School Facilities: Analyzing Brown V. Board Of Education’S Singular Approach To Quality Education, Corsica D. Smith

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

An Appeal For Change: Eliminating The Second Bite At The Apple In Tennessee Juvenile Cases, April Meldrum, Laura Hash

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents - Volume 3:1, Brianna Rene' Powell

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Business Torts And Unfair Competition Handbook, 3rd Edn, Maurice Stucke

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Flourishing Rights, Wendy A. Bach

Scholarly Works

Flourishing Rights reviews Clare Huntington’s Failure to Flourish: How Law Undermines Family Relationships, recently published by the Oxford University Press. This review explores the way that specific issues at the heart of the relationship between poor families and the state affects Huntington’s thesis and proposals. The review largely applauds the book but concludes that a robust form of rights protection, when combined with the impressive policy arguments Huntington marshals, might actually make real the audacious idea that everyone has a right to flourish.

Fundamental Changes In The Llc: A Study In Path-Divergence And Convergence, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

Issues relating to fundamental changes in LLCs — matters such as amendments to organizational documents, mergers, conversions, domestications, and dissolutions — have received little consideration in the law literature. While they are regular occurrences in the lifecycle of a firm, they are not in front of an LLC’s management or legal counsel every day. Having said that, they are critically important aspects of the law governing LLCs, especially in transformative times. This draft book chapter, written for the forthcoming Research Handbook on Partnerships, LLCs and Alternative Forms of Business Organizations (Robert W. Hillman & Mark J. Loewenstein eds., Edward Elgar …

Happy Together? The Uneasy Coexistence Of Federal And State Protection For Sound Recordings, Gary Pulsinelli

Scholarly Works

Federal copyright law provides a digital performance right that allows owners of sound recordings to receive royalties when their works are transmitted over the Internet or via satellite radio. However, this federal protection does not extend to pre-1972 sound recordings, which are excluded from the federal copyright system and instead left to the protections of state law. No state law explicitly provides protection for any type of transmission, a situation the owners of pre-1972 sound recordings find lamentable. These owners are therefore attempting to achieve such protection by various means. In California, they filed a lawsuit, claiming that they already …

Book Review: Humane Migration: Establishing Legitimacy And Rights For Displaced People., Fran Ansley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Indie Lawyer Of The Future: How New Technology, Cultural Trends, And Market Forces Can Transform The Solo Practice Of Law, Lucille Jewel

Scholarly Works

This article is about individual lawyers innovating in the practice of law. New technology, cultural trends, and market forces have the potential to awaken latent markets for one-to-one legal services grounded in the sharing economy, the commons, DIY businesses, and other similar endeavors. These forces might reshape the solo practice of law, which in turn might induce structural change in the legal system itself. Despite the mass commoditization of many law products, there is a potentially new market for craft-oriented lawyers who directly connect with clients.

When we connect the sharing economy and the cultural values that support it with …

Women In The Crowd Of Corporate Directors: Following, Walking Alone, And Meaningfully Contributing, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

With the thought that new perspectives often can be helpful in addressing long-standing unresolved questions, this article approaches an analysis of women’s roles on corporate boards of directors from the standpoint of crowd theory. Crowd theory — in reality, a group of theories — explains the behavior of people in crowds. Specifically, this article describes theories of the crowd from social psychology and applies them to the literature on female corporate directors, looking at the effects on both women as crowd members and boards as decision-making crowds.

Unfortunately, while the crowd theory perspective provides some insights, they are not altogether …

Truancy Lawyering In Status Offense Cases: An Access To Justice Challenge, Dean Rivkin

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Environmental Challenges To The Energy Sector, Becky L. Jacobs

Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Don't Fear The Leaker: Thoughts On Bureaucracy And Ethical Whistleblowing, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

In this brief Essay, I argue that rather than trying to eliminate leaks entirely, which experience demonstrates is impossible, we should instead try to channel leaks so that they provide the maximum benefit to transparency while reducing risks to national security and other secrecy concerns. I also offer some preliminary suggestions about how to accomplish this goal.

Brief Of Professors At Law And Business Schools As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Omnicare, Inc., Et Al., Petitioners, V. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund, Et Al., Respondents, No. 13-435 (S. Ct. Sept. 2, 2014), Joan Macleod Heminway, J. Robert Brown, Celia Taylor, Lyman P.Q. Johnson

Scholarly Works

This Amicus Brief was filed on behalf of more than 20 law and business faculty in a case arising under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933. The issue framed by the parties sought to define the test for establishing the falsity of an opinion that was not subjectively believed. The statement at issue involved representations that contracts were legally valid. The Brief took the position that the statement was not an opinion. A representation about the legal validity of contracts, like other matters of present fact, can be false on the date made. Nonetheless, a speaker may express …

Out With The Old, In With The New Two Perspectives On Implementing Libguides At An Academic And A Public Law Library, Shamika Dalton, Danielle Becker

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

LibGuides can be a great tool, as many librarians in various types of institutions will testify. But there are some considerations for their use. Following, Danielle A. Becker, electronic services librarian at Minnesota State Law Library, and Shamika D. Dalton, assistant university librarian at University of Florida Levin College of Law, provide their insights on working with the tool in their respective institutions

Out With The Old, In With The New Two Perspectives On Implementing Libguides At An Academic And A Public Law Library, Shamika Dalton

Scholarly Works

LibGuides can be a great tool, as many librarians in various types of institutions will testify. But there are some considerations for their use. Following, Danielle A. Becker, electronic services librarian at Minnesota State Law Library, and Shamika D. Dalton, assistant university librarian at University of Florida Levin College of Law, provide their insights on working with the tool in their respective institutions.

Evolution Of Chattel Paper: From Possession To Control, Thomas E. Plank

Scholarly Works

Since its inception, Article 9 has authorized both non-possessory assignment of chattel paper perfected by the filing of a financing statement and a possessory assignment perfected by possession. As a result, tangible chattel paper is “quasi-negotiable” because certain purchasers for value with possession can have priority over previously perfected secured parties. The 2000 revision of Article 9 authorized security agreements evidenced by an electronic record or records and created electronic chattel paper as a new sub-type of collateral. To extend quasi-negotiability to electronic chattel paper, it also introduced the concept of “control” as an analogue to possession of tangible chattel …

In Search Of Effective Ethics & Compliance Programs, Maurice Stucke

Scholarly Works

The U.S. Sentencing Commission's Organizational Guidelines for over twenty years have offered firms a significant financial incentive to develop an ethical organizational culture. Nonetheless, corporate crime persists. Too many ethics programs remain ineffective.

As this Article explores, the Guidelines' current approach is not working. The evidence, including sentencing data over the past twenty years, reveals that few firms have effective ethics and compliance programs. Nor is there much hope that the Guidelines' incentive will induce companies, after the economic crisis, to become more ethical.

The problem is not attributable to three assumptions underlying the Guidelines. The empirical research, while still …

Investor And Market Protection In The Crowdfunding Era: Disclosing To And For The 'Crowd', Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on disclosure regulation in a specific context: securities crowdfunding (also known as crowdfund investing or investment crowdfunding). The intended primary audience for disclosures made in the crowdfund investing setting is the “crowd,” an ill-defined group of potential and actual investors in securities offered and sold through crowdfunding. Securities crowdfunding, for purposes of this article, refers to an offering of securities made over the Internet to a broad-based, unstructured group of investors who are not qualified by geography, financial wherewithal, access to information, investment experience or acumen, or any other criterion.

To assess disclosure to and for the …

Anti-Justice, Melanie Wilson

Scholarly Works

This Article contends that, despite their unique, ethical duty to “seek justice,” prosecutors regularly fail to fulfill this ethical norm when removed from the traditional, adversarial courtroom setting. Examples abound. For instance, in 2013, Edward Snowden leaked classified information revealing a government-operated surveillance program known as PRISM. That program allows the federal government to collect metadata from phone companies and email accounts and to monitor phone conversations. Until recently, prosecutors relied on some of this covertly acquired intelligence to build criminal cases against American citizens without informing the accused. In failing to notify defendants, prosecutors violated the explicit statutory directives …

Sentencing Inequality Versus Sentencing Injustice, Melanie Wilson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Crossing The Rubicon: Why The Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger Should Be Blocked, Maurice Stucke, Allen Grunes

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

Comcast and Time Warner Cable say their proposed $45 billion merger would not raise prices -- and instead lead to real benefits -- for cable and broadband customers across the country.But, as we discuss, the deal raises serious concerns of a creeping monopolist and the ability of a powerful media buyer to harm rivals.

Reasonable Accommodation As Professional Responsibility, Reasonable Accommodation As Professionalism, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

The American legal profession has been slow to remove the barriers that exclude individuals with disabilities. As a result, people with disabilities remain underrepresented in the practice of law. While the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employment discrimination and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, there remain significant barriers to employment for lawyers with disabilities. This Article argues that the legal profession should view the legal requirements of reasonable accommodation and equal employment opportunities for lawyers with disabilities as fundamental components of professional responsibility and professionalism.

Crossing The Rubicon: Why The Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger Should Be Blocked, Maurice Stucke, Allen Grunes

Scholarly Works

Comcast and Time Warner Cable say their proposed $45 billion merger would not raise prices -- and instead lead to real benefits -- for cable and broadband customers across the country.

But, as we discuss, the deal raises serious concerns of a creeping monopolist and the ability of a powerful media buyer to harm rivals.

Proving Damages For Lost Profits: The Before-And-After Method, Robert M. Lloyd

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

This article explains the before-and-after method for calculating damages for lost profits. It reviews the leading cases and offers advice for lawyers litigating lost profits issues.

Chapter 11 With A Happy Ending: The Six Flags Bankruptcy, John Capps, Lauren Sherrell

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies

This paper discusses the bankruptcy and restructuring that Premier Parks (“Six Flags”) recently underwent in order to return the company to profitability. The discussion begins with a summary of the company’s history and an introduction to the key players in the restructuring process, including the relevant circumstances and management figures responsible for the considerable financial problems that brought Six Flags to make a Chapter 11 filing. Contextually significant factors such as economic and industry conditions, stakeholder motivations, and media occurrences that were particularly relevant are examined as well. The paper provides an account of the bankruptcy proceedings from the company’s …

In Re Fairpoint Communications, Inc., Patrick Green, Todd Blakeley Skelton

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies

FairPoint Communications, Inc. (the “Company”) and its subsidiaries (collectively, “FairPoint”) provide communications services to rural and small business customers in eighteen states.[1] As of December 2009, FairPoint had approximately 1.7 million “access line equivalents (including voice access lines and high-speed data lines, which include digital subscriber lines, or DSL, wireless broadband and cable modem) in service.”[2] Challenges presented by industry competition and innovation, the integration of acquired operations, adverse economic conditions, and changes in customer usage and spending habits contributed to FairPoint and its subsidiaries and affiliates’ filing a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on October 26, 2009 …

Borders Group, Inc.’S Final Chapter: How A Bookstore Giant Failed In The Digital Age, Will Hooper, Mary Katherine Rawls

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case Studies

In 1995, Borders Group, Inc. was the second largest bookstore in America, boasting massive superstores that housed more titles of books, DVDs, and videos than any of its competitors. Despite its early strength and success, a series of unfortunate business decisions and a general failure to keep up with the times sent Borders spiraling down a path to financial ruin. This paper documents the birth, rapid growth, and eventual downfall of Borders Bookstores through the lens of its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

The Beneficent Monopolist, Maurice Stucke, Allen Grunes

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

In examining Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC), we assess three of the arguments Comcast likely will make to the Department of Justice and FCC. Comcast will likely argue that its acquisition of TWC is unlikely to lessen competition because: (a) the broadband market is becoming more competitive: Google has introduced Google Fiber in a number of markets, and mobile broadband offered by wireless providers like AT&T and Sprint is competitive with fixed broadband; (b) Netflix and traditional media companies have sufficient clout to negotiate with Comcast and the government should not intervene on their behalf; and (c) …