Kent Greenfield

professor


Kent Greenfield
Photo courtesy of the Michigan Daily

At a glance...
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Professor of Law
Law School

greenfik@bc.edu

Office Location
Law School
M539

617.552.3167

     BACKGROUND

Kent Greenfield is Professor of Law and Law Fund Research Scholar at Boston College Law School, where he teaches and writes in the areas of business law, constitutional law, legal theory, and economic analysis of law.  He is also the Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Center on Corporations, Law and Society, at the Seattle University School of Law.  He is the author of the book “The Failure of Corporate Law,” published by University of Chicago Press.  The book has been called “simply the best and most well-reasoned progressive critique of corporate law yet written,” and the Law and Politics Book Review said that “it merits a place alongside Berle and Means, [and] Easterbrook and Fischel.”

Greenfield also has had journal articles published in the Yale Law Journal, the Virginia Law Review, the Boston College Law Review, the George Washington Law Review, and the Tulane Law Review, among others.  His articles are widely cited, and he has been called “the leading figure” and “the most creative thinker” in the progressive, stakeholder school of corporate law scholarship.  Greenfield has presented papers or lectured in 29 states, in six countries, and at 67 institutions (including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Stanford, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and the London School of Economics). 

Greenfield was named B.C. Law Teacher of the Year for 2003-04, a recognition bestowed by the Law Students Association on vote of the entire student body.  He was also awarded the Emil Slizewski Award for outstanding teaching, given by the graduating class of 2004.  Greenfield has been a Law Fund Research Scholar, a recognition of his scholarly contributions, since 2003.  He has taught at the University of Connecticut School of Law and the University of Hawaii School of Law, and at Brown University in the political science department.

He is the founder and president of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), an association of three dozen law schools and other academic institutions organized to fight for academic freedom and against discrimination.  FAIR brought suit against Donald Rumsfeld and others to contest the Solomon Amendment, which forces universities to assist military recruiters.  The Supreme Court decided the case against FAIR on March 6, 2006.  Greenfield’s work with FAIR was featured in numerous newspapers and media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Chronicle of Higher Education, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR. 

Greenfield also consults with litigators on issues of corporate accountability.  He was instrumental in developing the theory of the case brought against Unocal Corporation for alleged human rights violations committed by the company in Burma.

Before joining the faculty in 1995, Greenfield served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter, of the United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Levin H. Campbell, of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.  He also worked at the law firm of Covington & Burling, in Washington, D.C., and as an corporate policy advisor at Levi Strauss & Co., in San Francisco.

Greenfield is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with honors and was awarded membership into the honorary society Order of the Coif.  He also served as Topics and Comments Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review.  He received an A.B., with highest honors, from Brown University, where he studied economics and history.  Before law school, he traveled extensively in South America and Africa.



EDUCATION

A.B., Brown University; J.D., University of Chicago.

PRESENTATIONS

“The Possibilities for Stakeholder Corporate Governance,” Corporation 2020, New York, NY, in June 2006.

“The Real Story behind Rumsfeld v. FAIR,” plenary session, 2006 Society of American Law Teachers Teaching Conference, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, in September 2006.

ACTIVITIES

Panelist, “What to Do after Solomon,” National Association of Law Placement 2006 Conference, San Diego, CA, in April. Panelist, “Is There Academic Freedom at Boston College?” Boston College, in March 2006.

WORK IN PROGRESS

"Corporate Law and the Fetish of Choice." Forthcoming in Research in Law and Economics, 2008
"Defending Stakeholder Governance." Forthcoming in Case Western Reserve Law Review, 2008
"Bhopal and Lessons for Corporate Law." Forthcoming in New England Law Review, 2008
"The Implications of 'Going Private' on Stakeholders." Forthcoming in Brooklyn Law Review, 2008

COURSES

Fall '07: Corporations; Elements of Law
Spring '08: Economic Analysis of Law

PUBLICATIONS