NARBLA Conference Meeting  Summary - April 6, 2024

Greetings, NARBLA members and friends:

Bentley University hosted the 2024 Annual Conference of the North Atlantic Regional Business Law Association  (NARBLA) on Saturday, April 6, 2024.  


Anthony Smith (Program Chair), Darlene Saunders, and Zandra Baskin welcomed and checked in the NARBLA attendees.  Thank you, Darlene and Zandra,  for all you did to help Anthony prepare for the conference.

Beth Kaufman (Pearson Higher Education) displayed Business Law related texts and other materials. 


The attendess enjoyed socializing at the breakfast tables before the Business Meeting.

Anthony Smith (Program Chair) welcomed the guests at the Business Meeting, and reviewed the agenda for the day.

Anthony noted that submissions to the Business Law Review are due Monday, May 30, 2024, and Marie Hansen (Editor in Chief) is looking for reviewers (a remote commitment).

The next NARBLA Meeting and Conference will take place at Babson College on Saturday, April 5, 2025.

The officers for next year are Anthony Smith (President), Leslie Garbarino (Vice President/Program Chair), Walter Toomey (Treasurer), Liz Brown (NARBLA Delegate to AACSB), and Anthony Smith (NARBLA Alternate Delegate to AACSB).


Walter Toomey gave the Treasurer's report showing that NARBLA is in good financial standing.

Paper Presentations covered numerous topics:

Using Private Prisons to Explore Public-Private Partnerships, Contracts, and the Constitution (Kabrina Krebel Chang)

Sex Offender and Restrictive Covenants (Marianne Kulow and David Missirian)

Voices in Regulation:  Sentiment Analysis on the SEC's Climate Rule  (Henry Dao, Christian Savastano, and Anthony Smith)

Curing the Cancer Pledge (Hannah Weiser)  

Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy (Jason Peterson, John McCoy, and Tom Sullivan) 

ESG Transitioning?  The Politics of Climate Change (Christine Westphal and Mary Papazian)

Luncheon  

Kabrina Krebel Chang (current ALSB Vice President) conducted the  2024 NARBLA Centennial Town Hall.

Participants commented on, and discussed answers to the following four ALSB (Academy of Legal Studies in Business) questions:

1.       From your perspective, what will the landscape of legal studies and business ethics look like in the future, in academia broadly, and at your institution?  What changes do you foresee in the near future in the teaching or research environment with respect  to the firelds of law or ethics in business schools?

2.  Who will be the people who will serve as instructors or researchers in the fields of law and ethics in business schools as we move into our next century?  In other words, who will be members of our academy, and/or who will be the people we should try to bring in and serve through our academy?

3.  In what ways should our academy serve our community as we move into our next century?  What should we emphasize?

4.  All organizations change with time - ours certainly has.  Are there any structural changes you might suggest as we move into the next century of service?        


Recorded Presentations

Journal of Legal Studies Eucation (Dale Thompson)

Business Law Review (Marie Hansen)

So, NARBLA members and friends, save the date for next year's NARBLA conference:  Saturday, April 5, 2025, at Babson College.  For questions about the NARBLA conference, you may contact Vice President (Program Chair),  Leslie Garbarino at LGarbarino@babson.edu.

Any questions about paper presentations for publication, contact Editor-in-Chief, Marie Hansen, at hansenm@husson.edu. 

For updates on NARBLA news, Guidelines for Publication of Papers, and the Conference Registration Form, go to www.narbla.org to reach the NARBLA Web page. 

NARBLA encourages tenure-track faculty to join NARBLA. It is a good opportunity to network and present papers. If you wish to have your name removed from the NARBLA mailing list, or to change your e-mail address, or to add the name of a colleague, contact William Greenspan at profweg2013@gmail.com. 

A special thanks to Marie Hansen for her continuing service as Editor-in-Chief of the Business Law Review. There are currently more than 660 subscriptions to the Business Law Review. 

Finally, congratulations and thanks to Anthony Smith for planning and running such a well-organized, professional, fun-filled conference.