Volume 1 / Number 1 / Dean’s Remarks

This inaugural issue of The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law marks the beginning of what I am confident will be an important addition to legal scholarship. The Journal provides a unique focus on the legal problems of small and closely held businesses. and thus fills a void in business law scholarship. It also reflects important business law developments at our law school. Our business law faculty is dedicated to providing leadership in business law education for law students and practicing lawyers while contributing to business law scholarship. Our students are committed to providing, through this journal, a national forum for the discussion and advancement of business law.

We have developed a business law program which integrates the traditional law school curriculum with an emphasis on the legal needs of small and closely held businesses. Most of our graduates who do business related work, like most of the graduates of most law schools, provide legal services to entrepreneurs and the many small businesses which are the backbone of the United States economy. The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law will serve these lawyers and the businesses which they represent.

With an eye to educating law students about business as well as business law, and with an emphasis on the lawyer’s role as a contributor to business success, our faculty has assembled a thoughtful combination of curricular and extracurricular opportunities for our students. The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law is an important element of this business law program. Other components include a diverse and up-to-date business law curriculum, a certificate program in tax law, a Business Law Roundtable which brings students together with business lawyers and leaders in business, the Lewis and Clark Forum which is an annual academic conference devoted to a business law topic, and a corporate counsel internship program. Our students also have the opportunity to participate in business-related competitions including the National Tax Moot Court Competition and the National Negotiation Competition, and to join the student Business Law Society.

These developments in the law school’s business law program blend nicely with our nationally recognized program in environmental law. From its inception, the environmental program has integrated the law of natural resources development with the law of environmental regulation. This early recognition of the inextricable relationship between economic development and environmental protection influences our approach to business law, particularly our focus on small business where regulatory impacts are often the most significant. The Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law joins our other journal, Environmental Law, to provide a public face which reflects our balanced approach to the education of future lawyers.

On behalf of our law school and our many alumni practicing business law and engaged in business across the United States, I am pleased to introduce this new journal to the bar, the academy and the business community. Particular thanks are due to the Journal’s editorial board who, in the midst of all that fills the life of today’s law student, have taken an idea and turned it into an excellent law journal in less than twelve months. They are a credit to our law school. Thanks also go to my colleagues on the faculty - Jack Bogdanski, Brian Blum, Gordon Smith - who have nurtured the idea of a small business law journal, guided the development of an outstanding business law program, and now serve as faculty advisors to the journal.

James L. Huffman
Dean,
Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College