“Be it resolved: Corporations should not be considered people under the U.S. Constitution.”

5:30: Reception
6:00 – 7:30: Debate
The Fordham Debate is named in honor of Professor Jefferson B. Fordham, an outstanding legal scholar and defender of individual and civil rights who joined the University of Utah College of Law faculty in 1972. The annual debate addresses relevant contemporary public policy and legal issues.

1 hour CLE. Email cle@law.utah.edu for the certificate.

Debators: Kent Greenfield and Jeff Clements

Kent Greenfield is Professor of Law and Law Fund Research Scholar at Boston College Law School, where he teaches and writes in the areas of business law, constitutional law, decision making theory, legal theory, and economic analysis of law. He is the past Chair of the Section on Business Associations of the American Association of Law Schools. Greenfield also has had journal articles published in the Yale Law Journal, the Virginia Law Review, the Boston College Law Review, the George Washington Law Review, and the Tulane Law Review, among others. His articles are widely cited, and he has been called “the leading figure” and “the most creative thinker” in the progressive, stakeholder school of corporate law scholarship. Greenfield has lectured in 34 states, 9 countries, and at nearly 100 institutions (including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Stanford, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and the London School of Economics). He writes regularly for the American Prospect and the Huffington Post, and his opinion essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Nation. Greenfield also consults with litigators on issues of corporate accountability. He was instrumental in developing the theory of the case brought against Unocal Corporation for alleged human rights violations committed by the company in Burma.

Jeff Clements is the author of Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money & Global Corporations. He is the co-founder and chair of the board of Free Speech for People, a national non-partisan campaign to overturn Citizens United v. FEC, challenge excessive corporate power, and strengthen American democracy and republican self-government. He co-founded Free Speech For People in 2010, after representing several public interest organizations with a Supreme Court amicus brief in the Citizens United case. Jeff has served as Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Public Protection Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. As Bureau Chief, he led more than 100 staff in the enforcement of environmental, healthcare, financial services, civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection laws. In private practice, Jeff has been a partner at Mintz Levin in Boston, and in his own firm. In 2012, Jeff co-founded Whaleback Partners LLC, which provides cost-effective capital to farmers and businesses engaged in local, sustainable agriculture. Jeff graduated with distinction in History and Government from Colby College and magna cum laude from Cornell Law School. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Moderator: Jeff Schwartz, Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

Professor Schwartz received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his law degree, Order of the Coif, from the University of California, Berkeley. His research centers on securities law, investment-management regulation, and retirement policy, with a special focus on how social science and political philosophy inform regulatory analysis.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, Professor Schwartz taught at California Western School of Law. Before that, he practiced in Southern California. He served both as in-house counsel and as a corporate attorney for Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he represented clients regarding mergers and acquisitions, corporate-governance matters, and securities-law compliance.

Professor Schwartz teaches Business Organizations, Corporate Finance, and Current Issues in Securities Law.