A dozen of the most promising junior professors in business law gathered July 6-7, 2017, at the University of Colorado Law School for the seventh annual Junior Business Law Colloquium (JBLC).
Associate Professor Brad Bernthal hosted the intimate scholarly workshop. The JBLC attracted scholars from many of the top schools in the nation, including Duke University, the University of Chicago, and Emory Law School, among others.
Professor Andrew Schwartz founded the JBLC, which includes professors ranging from pre-tenure status up to one-year post tenure.
“A lot of the credit goes to Andrew for establishing norms and a culture around the conference of exceptional collegiality as well as a certain level of rigor,” Bernthal said. He joked that Schwartz “aged himself out” by receiving tenure, since the JBLC emphasizes scholarly development of pre-tenure professors.
Preceding the JBLC, each participant submitted an in-progress article. Another professor “presented” the work of an author. The group then provided comments, critiques, and suggestions. Each participant was responsible for reading each article, which facilitated quality information sharing and high caliber comments by the entire group.
“Because everyone has read all of the articles, each of the professors is baselined with the material. That sets the table for a thoughtful level of engagement that is very rare,” Bernthal said.
With his background in entrepreneurial law and startup finance, Bernthal’s experience makes him an ideal facilitator for the colloquium. Bernthal teaches students in Colorado Law’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, and is the founder and director of the Silicon Flatiron Center’s Entrepreneurship Initiative.
As with many Colorado Law conferences, participants in the Junior Business Law Colloquium spent some time in the mountains around Boulder with a hike and dinner to finish off the event.
Conference participants included:
- Brad Bernthal, University of Colorado
- Anthony Casey, University of Chicago
- Elisabeth de Fontenay, Duke University
- George Georgiev, Emory
- Cathy Hwang, University of Utah
- Matthew Jennejohn, Brigham Young University
- Elizabeth Pollman, Loyola Los Angeles
- Dorothy Shapiro, University of Chicago
- Greg Shill, University of Iowa
- Jack Wroldsen, Oklahoma State University