W&L Law Review’s Corporate Law Symposium to Honor Professors Johnson and Millon The Lara D. Gass Symposium will focus this year on corporate law and governance, honoring the scholarship of two of the law school’s longest-serving faculty members, Lyman Johnson and David Millon.

By Peter Jetton
October 6, 2016

The Washington and Lee Law Review’s Lara D. Gass Symposium at the Washington and Lee University School of Law will focus this year on corporate law and governance, honoring the scholarship of two of the law school’s longest-serving faculty members, Lyman Johnson and David Millon.

The event is scheduled for Oct. 21-22 in the Millhiser Moot Court Room, Sydney Lewis Hall on the campus of Washington and Lee University. The symposium proceedings are free and open to the public.

Professor Johnson and Professor Millon arrived at Washington and Lee in the mid-1980s, embarking upon their scholarly careers at a time now regarded as perhaps the single most extraordinary period of upheaval in the field of corporate law since the 1930s.  Their careers have mapped closely onto many of the developments that effectively define the field of corporate law as conceptualized and practiced today, and each has made extraordinary contributions to a range of theoretical and practical debates that have unfolded over the last thirty years.

The symposium will celebrate the respective contributions of Professors Johnson and Millon to the fields of corporate law and corporate governance by engaging with the central issues and problems that have animated their work. Johnson and Millon will each give a public keynote lecture, and a number of highly regarded experts in various areas of corporate law will participate in panel discussions on a range of corporate law topics.

Panels on Oct. 21 will address theoretical perspectives on the corporation, the nature and function of corporate fiduciary duties, and religious conceptions of corporate purpose. Panels on Oct. 22 will discuss corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and provide perspectives on the arc of corporate legal history over recent decades, including forecasts regarding the field’s continuing development.

An invitation-only dinner will feature remarks by Joseph Slights, Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of the Chancery and a 1988 graduate of W&L Law. Other speakers include:

• Matthew Bodie (Callis Family Professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law)
• William Wilson Bratton (Nicholas F. Gallicchio Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School)
• Christopher Bruner (William Donald Bain Family Professor of Corporate Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law)
• Ronald Colombo (Professor of Law, Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Hofstra University)
•  Lynne Dallas (Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law)
•  Deborah DeMott (David F. Cavers Professor of Law, Duke Law School)
•  Andrew Gold (Professor of Law, DePaul College of Law)
• Lawrence Hamermesh (Ruby R. Vale Professor of Corporate and Business Law, Widener University Law School)
• Joan MacLeod Heminway (Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee College of Law)
• Claire Hill (James L. Krusemark Chair in Law, University of Minnesota Law School)
• Jack Jacobs (Senior Counsel, Sidley Austin LLP and former Justice, Delaware Supreme Court)
• Andrew Johnston (University of Sheffield School of Law, UK)
• Brett McDonnell (Dorsey & Whitney Chair in Law, University of Minnesota Law School)
• Thomas Molony (Associate Professor of Law, Elon University School of Law)
• Eric Orts (Guardsmark Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)
• Alan Palmiter (Howard L. Oleck Professor of Business Law, Wake Forest University School of Law)
• Leo Strine, Jr. (Chief Justice, Delaware Supreme Court)
• Robert Vischer (Dean and Mengler Chair in Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law)
• Cheryl L. Wade (Dean Harold F. McNiece Professor of Law, St. John’s University School of Law)
• Harwell Wells (Professor of Law, Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law)

A full schedule and registration information is available online. For questions about the event, contact Mitchell Diles ‘17L at diles.m@law.wlu.edu.

The Lara D. Gass Symposium is named in honor of Lara Gass, a member of the Law Class of 2014 who passed away in an automobile accident in March of 2014. Gass served as Symposium Editor for the Washington and Lee Law Review, organizing the Law Review’s 2014 symposium focused on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Lara was active within the Women Law Students Organization and also served as a Kirgis Fellow, the law school’s peer mentoring group, during the 2012–2103 academic year. In January 2014, Lara received recognition for her academic achievements, her leadership abilities, her service to the law school and university community, and her character when she was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society.

Organized and hosted by the W&L Law Review, this event is sponsored by the Dean’s Office, Washington and Lee University School of Law; the Frances Lewis Law Center, Washington and Lee University School of Law; the Provost’s Office, Washington and Lee University; the Class of 1960 Institute for Honor, Washington and Lee University; and the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, Washington and Lee University.

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