Business Scholarship Podcast

Christiana Ochoa, professor of law at Indiana University Bloomington, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss her article Deals in the Heartland, which she co-authored with Kacey Cook and Hanna Weil. In this article, Ochoa and her co-authors conduct an ethnography around disputes over wind-farm construction in rural Indiana. Their findings suggest that contracting practices, including formality and transparency, affect the stability of relationships among members of tight-knit communities and the relationships between community members and outside parties. With implications for both contract theory and the race to adopt clean-energy technology, this contractual stability Ochoa and her co-authors identify can, in turn, help wind-farm operators overcome local regulatory barriers. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Steven Rozenfeld, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Lécia Vicente, who teaches business law at Louisiana State University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss her article Ownership Piercing. In this article, Vicente theorizes the unique aspects of the separation of ownership and control in limited liability companies (LLCs) and proposes that in manager-managed LLCs, courts should assess ownership through an evaluative “ownership piercing” process. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Steven Rozenfeld, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Jared Ellias, professor of law at Harvard University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss his article The Rise of Bankruptcy Directors, which he co-authored with Ehud Kamar and Kobi Kastiel of Tel Aviv University. In this article Ellias and his co-authors present an empirical study of the rise of independent directors—traditionally a corporate-law concept—in Chapter 11 bankruptcies. The study finds that although “bankruptcy directors” may be presented as neutral experts who help maximize creditor recoveries, their appointments are associated with on average 20% reductions in unsecured-creditor recoveries. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Steven Rozenfeld, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Joseph Pileri, chief legal officer at Mission Driven Finance, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss his article Who Gets to Make a Living? Street Vending in America. Pileri outlines the history and place of street vending in America’s cities, how the business model works and why entrepreneurs pursue it, and the regulatory barriers to entry they face. He closes with proposed reforms to address the distributional and criminalization effects of current street-vending regulations. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Steven Rozenfeld, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Afra Afsharipour, professor of law at the University of California, Davis, and Darren Rosenblum, professor of law at McGill University, join the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss their essay Power and Pay in the C-Suite. In this essay, Afsharpiour and Rosenblum extend the board-diversity literature to examine diversity in the next layer of the corporate hierarchy: the C-suite occupied by the chief executive, financial, legal, HR, and other senior officers. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Daniel Hamilton, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Gerardo Pérez Cavazos, assistant professor at the University of California San Diego; Karen Woody, professor at Washington & Lee University; and Joseph Borg, director of the Alabama Securities Commission, join the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss Corporate Misconduct and Local Journalism as part of the podcast’s Local Journalism, Business, and Society symposium. Pérez Cavazos is the author, with Jonas Heese and Caspar David Peter, of When the Local Newspaper Leaves Town: The Effects of Local Newspaper Closures on Corporate Misconduct. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Daniel Hamilton, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Sinja Leonelli, a PhD student at the University of Chicago; Aneesh Raghunandan, assistant professor at the London School of Economics; and John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, join the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss Workplaces and Local Journalism as part of the podcast’s Local Journalism, Business, and Society symposium. Leonelli is the author of Are Newspaper Deserts an Oasis for Leniency? The Effect of Information Dissemination on Regulator Activity. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Daniel Hamilton, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Michael Ewens, professor at the California Institute of Technology; RonNell Andersen Jones, professor at the University of Utah; and Steven Waldman, co-founder and president of Report for America, join the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss Private Equity and Local Journalism as part of the podcast’s Local Journalism, Business, and Society symposium. Ewens is the author, with Arpit Gupta and Sabrina Howell, of Local Journalism under Private Equity Ownership. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Daniel Hamilton, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Tracey George, professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss her article Gender, Credentials and M&A, which she co-authored with Albert Yoon, professor of law and economics at the University of Toronto and Mitu Gulati, professor of law at the University of Virginia. George’s article offers an empirical examination of gender gaps in M&A deal leadership and how the signaling effects of attorney credentials influence those gaps. George is joined on the panel by practitioners Eva Davis, a partner and chair of the transactions department at Winston & Strawn, and Germaine Gurr, a partner in the M&A practice of White & Case. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Daniel Hamilton, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

Yesha Yadav, professor of law at Vanderbilt University, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss her article The Broken Bond Market, which she co-authored with Jonathan Brogaard, professor of finance at the University of Utah. In this article, Yadav and Brogaard observe an inverse relationship between bond liquidity and governance bespokeness, which forces a tradeoff between tradability and investor protection. They recommend private-ordering solutions to reduce this dichotomy. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, with editing by Daniel Hamilton, a third-year student at Brooklyn Law School.