Faculty Focus: Corporate Law

Michal Barzuza

• Received the John M. Olin Prize for outstand­ing S.J.D. dissertation in law and economics at Harvard Law School.
• Scholarship integrates law and finance. Her article, “Market Seg­mentation: The Rise of Nevada as a Liability-Free Jurisdiction,” was named among the 10 best cor­porate and securities law articles published in 2012, in an annual poll of corporate law professors conducted by Corporate Practice Commentator.
• Served on the board of Southern Union Gas, a mid-size New York Stock Exchange company.
• Practiced corporate law at the Israeli law firm Haim Zadok & Co.

Albert Choi

• Holds a Ph.D. in eco­nomics from the Mas­sachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Co-editor of the Ameri­can Law and Economics Review and associate editor of the International Review of Law and Eco­nomics.
• Has published widely in both peer-review and law review journals, including the American Economic Review, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Industrial Eco­nomics, NYU Law Review, Journal of Legal Studies, Virginia Law Review, and Journal of Law, Econom­ics and Organization.
• Was director on the Amer­ican Law and Economic Association’s board (2011- 14).
• Has taught at several other law schools, includ­ing Yale, Harvard, Colum­bia and the University of Pennsylvania.

George M. Cohen 

• Holds a Ph.D. in eco­nomics from the Univer­sity of Pennsylvania.
• Clerked for Judge Walter K. Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
• Has served as an ethics consultant and expert for several large law firms.
• Co-authored the books “The Law and Ethics of Lawyering” and “Foun­dations of the Law and Ethics of Lawyering.”
• Teaching and scholarly interest focused on the professional respon­sibilities of corporate lawyers and the law and economics of agency and partnership.

Quinn Curtis

• Prior to law school, worked as a software engineer for Microsoft.
• Holds a Ph.D. in finance from the Yale School of Management.
• With research focused on empirical law and finance, teaches courses in corporate law, securi­ties and venture capital.
• Recent scholarship focuses on how law can help reform 401(k) plans and 529 plans.

George S. Geis 

• Holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.
• Research focuses on problems related to contract theory, business alliances, shareholder litigation and other issues involving the intersection of law and business.
• Spent five years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co., where he served clients on corporate strategy, mergers and marketing; also worked with a New York and a Los Angeles law firm.
• Co-author of the book “Digital Deals: Strategies for Selecting and Struc­turing Partnerships.”
• Taught courses as a visiting professor at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad; the Univer­sity of Auckland in New Zealand; and the Univer­sity of Trento in Italy.

Rich Hynes

• Holds a Ph.D. in eco­nomics from the Univer­sity of Pennsylvania.
• Practiced law with Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Los Angeles.
• Focuses on paral­lel systems outside of bankruptcy that handle debtor-creditor relations, including the use of state courts to collect debts. 

Edmund W. Kitch

• Was special assistant to the solicitor general of the United States and executive director of the Civil Aeronautics Board Committee on Procedural Reform.
• Was a member of the Committee on Public-Private Sector Interactions in Vaccine Innovation of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences (1983-85).
• Co-authored books include “Selected Stat­utes and International Agreements on Unfair Competition, Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents” and “Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition.”

Kevin A. Kordana

• Clerked for Chief Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
• Scholarly interests include bankruptcy, and law and economics issues.
• Expert on nonprofits.

Julia D. Mahoney

• Practiced law at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
• Teaches Corporations, Nonprofit Organizations and the Monetary Con­stitution.
• Research interests include the political economy of property rights and constitutional claims arising out of the 2007-09 financial crisis.

Paul G. Mahoney

• Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and for Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
• Former Law School dean, member of the Council on Foreign Rela­tions and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• Member of the Se­curities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee.
• Author of “Wasting a Crisis: Why Securities Regulation Fails.”
• Worked on legal reform projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Nepal.

Andrew N. Vollmer ’78

• Served as deputy general counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission (2006-09).
• Was a partner in the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Practice Group of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where his practice con­centrated on securities enforcement, private securities litigation and internal investigations.
• Director of the John W. Glynn, Jr. Law & Business Program.

Steven D. Walt

• Ph.D. and M.A. in phi­losophy from the Univer­sity of Chicago.
• Co-author of two popular casebooks, “Secured Transactions in Personal Property” and “Payments and Credits.”
• Has been a visiting re­search scholar at Nuffield College, the University of Oxford; and an Amoco Foundation Term As­sistant Professor of Legal Studies at the Wharton School.