Announcing the 2024 Leet Symposium at Case Western Reserve School of Law

George A. Leet Business Law Symposium on 11/08/2024

Symposium Topic Background:

The 20^th century has witnessed the de-verticalization of production and the rise of collaborative agreements in both the biopharma and manufacturing sectors. Prior scholarship has led to a rich inquiry into these collaborations with many different explanations for their governance and contracts. Some highlight the agreements for their ability to build trust. Others emphasize the ability of these agreements to bring the efficient benefits of a hierarchy to agreements between firms. Still, others rationalize the agreements as a mechanism for institutionalizing learning. This symposium will bring together many of the key scholars in the field to address network contracts and new governance strategies for the innovation sphere. The symposium will also provide an examination into network failures. 

Keynote speaker:

Professor Matthew Jennejohn will be the keynote speaker this year. Professor Jennejohn’s scholarship focuses on the impact of institutions on economic growth, with particular attention to “building equitable institutions for a complex economy.” He is currently the Deputy Director of Strategy in the Office of Strategic Capital at the U.S. Department of Defense, an analyst at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Marion and Rulon Earl Professor of Law at BYU Law School. Previously, he has served as the Justin W. D’Atri Visiting Professor of Law, Business & Society at Columbia Law School (Autumn 2019), practiced for five years at Shearman & Sterling in New York, and clerked for (then) Vice Chancellor Leo Strine of the Delaware Court of Chancery. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School, the London School of Economics, and Brigham Young University, and grew up attending public schools in Dousman, Wisconsin.

Invited Speakers Include: 

Prof. Susan Helper, Case Western Reserve University Economics (susan.helper@case.edu)

Prof. Liza Vertinsky, University of Maryland Law School (lvertinsky@law.umaryland.edu)

Prof. Lisa Bernstein, University of Chicago Law School (lbernst621@gmail.com)

Prof. Peter Lee, UC Davis School of Law (ptrlee@ucdavis.edu)

Geerte Hessen, Amsterdam General Counsel—Ferrovial Amsterdam

Professor Jorge Contreras, University of Utah School of Law (jorge.contreras@law.utah.edu)

John Murray, Counsel at Abbvie (john.murray@abbvie.com)

Josh Whitford, Professor Columbia University, Sociology Department (jw2212@columbia.edu)

Juliet Kostritsky, Professor CWRU School of Law (jpk3@case.edu)

Symposium Logistics:

The 2024 Leet Symposium will be an in-person, all-day symposium for all of the speakers. This will be a wonderful opportunity for collegial exchanges over these papers and other intellectual ideas, and to continue our discussions over dinner. Non-speakers may be able to attend in person or by remote participation.’

People who want to join need to pre-register at this link:

https://case.edu/law/our-school/events-lectures/relational-contracting-new-industrial-policy

Moderators:

In addition to planning the symposium, Professors Anat Alon-Beck, Eric Chaffee, Charles Korsmo, Juliet P. Kostritsky, and Robert Rapp from the Case Western Reserve University Law School Faculty will be moderating at the symposium.

CLE Credit and IT Information:

Patty Harbold (email: patricia.kim@case.edu), Director of our Academic Centers, and Martin Raska, of our IT department, will be contacting you about your presentation. Patty will handle the CLE process through the Ohio Supreme Court and Martin will handle any IT-related concerns and other information you may need.

Symposium Publication:  

The Case Western Law Review often publishes the Leet symposium as an issue. You are not required to present a paper or to publish in our law review but it would be wonderful if you would be willing to consider that as a possibility.