The Center for Business Law (CBL) operates as a forum for faculty and students to integrate course work with policy research in the areas of intellectual property law, tax law, and corporate governance and ethics.

Whether they come to New England Law | Boston from positions at major firms or regulatory agencies, CBL professors understand the big picture from an insider’s perspective. One professor is a member of the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board. Another was the executive director of the National Association of Securities Dealers and past regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission. With student placements at organizations like the Boston Stock Exchange and insurance giant Liberty Mutual, faculty and students integrate course work with academic study and policy research across the spectrum of business law topics.

CBL’s three institutes, which focus on corporate governance and ethics, intellectual property, and tax law, plus a business law practice credit keep New England Law students on the leading edge of theory and practice. Faculty and students of the institutes also undertake projects in areas of emerging need that both grow out of and feed back into CBL academic work. In addition, the institutes offer a variety of career enhancement programs and seminars. Recent projects include data collection on the use of criminal statutes to prosecute corporate entities. The findings will be used to help scholars and students alike make judgments about whether this is a good use of criminal law.

Corporate Governance and Ethics Institute

• Headed by Professor Susan Finneran, the recent emphasis of this institute has been on issues of social justice and the responsibilities of companies within a system that has enabled them to prosper at the expense of some individuals and populations.
• Institute projects include an examination of the increasing use of criminal law to prosecute corporate entities and a study of the effectiveness of a recent Chicago slavery reparations ordinance.
• A former chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Business Law Section Council, Finneran is an expert on many aspects of corporate governance and business ethics, including financial regulation and insider trading.
  
  

Intellectual Property Institute

• Focused on one of the fastest growing areas of legal specialization, this institute’s activities are related to the challenges technology poses to the traditional demarcation in the law between the intangible and the concrete and between the public domain and private property.
• Professor Russ VerSteeg, co-director of the institute, writes extensively on intellectual property law, including a chapter on “Originality and Creativity in Copyright Law” in the book, Intellectual Property and Information Wealth: Issues and Practices in the Digital Age. This four-volume work is considered the go-to resource for emerging issues in intellectual property law.
• Professor Eileen Herlihy, who co-directs the institute, is currently serving as cochair of the Intellectual Property Litigation Committee of the Boston Bar Association. Herlihy is a past president of the American Intellectual Property Inn of Court. Before joining the New England Law faculty, she was a partner at Palmer & Dodge, LLP, in Boston, with an intellectual property litigation practice that emphasized patent litigation.
  
  

Tax Institute

• Addressing a full range of tax issues from both regulatory and compliance perspectives, this institute ensures that the CBL tax program remains a strong core discipline of the school.
• Current research includes a comparative study of U.S., Canadian, and European taxation of Internet transactions.
• Professor Sarah W. Salter, institute co-director, has worked extensively with legislative committees on tax statutes. Professor Eric A. Lustig, who co-directs the institute with Salter, served as attorney-adviser to the Hon. Lawrence A. Wright of the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, D. C., before joining the CBL faculty. He has written extensively on tax policy and the “new IRS.”
  
  

Business Law Practice Credit

• Places students in legal externship positions that correspond to their current coursework in business law.
• Students gain hands-on experience negotiating and drafting agreements, determining compliance, arbitrating disputes, and participating in litigation activities.
• Typical placements include Liberty Mutual, RNK Telecommunication, Natural Microsystems, Inc., the Boston Stock Exchange, and the National Association of Securities Dealers.