Getting to Know Professor Ann Lipton
In August, Professor Ann M. Lipton will join the Colorado Law Faculty as Professor of Law and Laurence W. DeMuth Chair of Business Law.
Ann M. Lipton studies corporate governance, the relationships between corporations and investors, and the role of corporations in society. Her articles have appeared in the Yale Journal on Regulation, Journal of Corporation Law, and the Georgetown Law Journal, among other publications. In 2020, one of her articles made the Corporate Practice Commentator's list of the 10 Best Articles of the year. Beginning with the Ninth Edition, she became one of the authors of the Securities Regulation: Cases and Materials casebook published by Aspen Publishers. She also blogs regularly for the Business Law Prof Blog.
Lipton will join the Colorado Law faculty from Tulane Law. Prior to entering academia, she practiced in New York for over ten years, specializing in plaintiff-side corporate and securities litigation. Before that, she clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter and Chief Judge Edward Becker of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Lipton holds a JD from Harvard Law School.
In this interview, Professor Lipton shares more about her work, the inspiration behind it, and some of her career accomplishments so far.
What most excites you about life in Colorado?
AL: I'm a business law professor, and Colorado - especially the Boulder area - has a thriving startup scene. I'm looking forward to getting to know the people who are part of that ecosystem. And more personally, the environment is so beautiful; I can't wait to buy a good pair of boots and get on a hiking trail.
Can you share a bit about any current projects you are working on?
AL: I've been researching whether the structure of the securities laws - and particularly the laws that govern institutional investors, like mutual funds and private equity funds — inadvertently encourage investors to seek out companies with antisocial business models, that ultimately harm society overall.
Beyond that, I've recently started a podcast called Shareholder Primacy. It's a pet project with Michael Levin, an activist investor based in Chicago. We talk about current issues involving corporate law and investor rights and responsibilities.
How does your experience as a litigator inform your approach as a legal scholar and teacher?
AL: I often use examples of cases I worked on to illustrate particular points for students. I can show them the documents that were under consideration by the court, and describe the arguments, in a way that I think helps the students appreciate how a single set of facts can be interpreted in many different ways.
What inspired you to pursue a legal career?
AL: My mother is an attorney (retired), and my grandmother was an attorney, so I was absolutely, positively committed to never becoming an attorney myself. Until I was assigned to read the book Make No Law by Anthony Lewis in a college class on mass communication. That book taught me to view law as a vehicle for social change and inspired me to take some undergraduate legal classes. After that I was hooked.
What is your proudest career accomplishment so far?
AL: In 2021, I received Tulane Law's Felix Frankfurter Award for Distinguished Teaching. I could not be prouder.
Professor Lipton will be presenting a talk titled “Will Elon Musk Get His Pay Package Back and the Rupture in Delaware Corporate Law” at Mini Law School on September 17. Register for this fall’s Mini Law School session here: https://www.colorado.edu/law/academics/mini-law-school