Law

Corporate Law Symposium

Moving Beyond 'Diversity' in Race and Business Law

Event Details: 

  • Date: Friday, March 25, 2022
  • Time: 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. 
  • CLE: Application approved for 3.75 CLE hours in Ohio; Application approved for 4.75 CLE hours in Kentucky.
  • Registration: Register Online

This Corporate Law Symposium, the thirty-third organized by the UC College of Law Corporate Law Center, confronts how the discourse around race and business law can move beyond diversity. The Symposium will bring scholars, practitioners, and business leaders together to discuss impediments and pathways to racial equity in business law. This event marks the first collaboration between the Corporate Law Center and the newly endowed Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice.

Schedule

Schedule is tentative and subject to change.

BIPOC-Owned Enterprises | 9:00-10:15 a.m.

  • Eleanor Brown, Professor of Law and International Affairs, Penn State Law 
  • Pamela Foohey, Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law 
  • Curtis Hollis, Chief Operating Officer, Minority Business Accelerator, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce 
  • Allen Woods, Co-Founder & CEO, MORTAR

Immigrants and Entrepreneurship | 10:30-11:45 a.m.

  • Carlos Berdejó, Professor of Law | J. Howard Zeimann Fellow, Loyola Law School  
  • Lan Cao, Betty Hutton Williams Professor of Law Professor of International Economic Law, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University 
  • Deborah Davis, Cincinnati Regional Director Minority Business Assistance Center – African American Chamber of Commerce
  • Bryan Wright, Executive Director, Cincinnati Compass 

Keynote | 12:15-1:15 p.m.

Cheryl L. Wade, Dean F. McNiece Professor of Law, St. John’s University School of Law

Race has always been an implicit but integral part of business law and that discourse in this context has been about one race primarily – white men (and sometimes women). Professor Wade will suggest reasons why this is so and what are the implications for non-white people. Having just worked on a book chapter about the race of U.S. corporations, she will focus on that while exploring why a corporation’s racial identity is relevant in contexts like predatory lending. 

Business and Racial Hierarchy | 1:30-2:45 p.m.

  • Alina Ball, Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings School of Law 
  • Means Cameron, Entrepreneur, Owner/Creative Director of BlaCkOWned Outerwear and Owner of blaCk Coffee Lounge
  • Valerie Johnson, Associate Professor of Political Science Department and Endowed Professor of Urban Diplomacy, the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy, DePaul University
  • Steven Ramirez, Abner J. Mikva Professor of Law | Director, Business Law Center, Loyola University Chicago