It’s a Bad Idea, Right? F– It, It’s Fine.

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This guest post by BC Law Professor Brian Quinn first appeared in the M&A Law Prof Blog.

Hi. Back again. I’ve generally taken a hiatus from blogging, but felt it important to come back and put some things on the record, as it were. If this has not been on your radar, in the past two months or so, Delaware has been on a mad rush to make some significant amendments to its corporate law. This, after having previously signaled it wasn’t going to make any amendments this year. I’ll go into each of the proposed amendments in subsequent posts and the problems I see with the process, but in this post I want to focus on one of the potential reasons for moving so quickly to make changes to the law. 

The amendment themselves are what are being called market practice amendments. Earlier this year the Chancery Court asked itself: “What happens when the seemingly irresistible force of market practice meets the traditionally immovable object of statutory law? A court must uphold the law, so the statute prevails.” Moelis. In all three of these cases, the court effectively dealt a knuckle-wrapping to practitioners.

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New York Tests FCC’s “No Rate Regulation” Pledge

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

Reclassification opponents have long warned that net neutrality could be a Trojan horse for broadband rate regulation. Partly in response to this criticism, the Federal Communications Commission’s recent Title II reclassification order expressly reiterated its commitment to the agency’s long-standing, bipartisan commitment to keeping the Internet free from price controls. But even before the order had been finalized, New York’s Affordable Broadband Act began testing the strength of that commitment—and the agency’s initial response seems to be reinforcing its critics’ concerns.

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Two Weddings, a Funeral, and a Naturalization Ceremony

/ Jonathan Bertulis-Fernandes / Leave a comment

Two weddings, a funeral, and a naturalization ceremony. This pretty much sums up my time in law school, in many ways. I lost my dad suddenly at the end of my 1L Spring semester (during finals: really wouldn’t recommend). During my 2L and 3L years I had two weddings: one in the U.S. and one in the U.K., where I grew up and my family still live. (For the sake of clarity: these weddings were to the same person. I’m nothing if not consistent.) And after having lived in the U.S. since 2016, I became a citizen in February of last year.

Of course, my time in law school was marked by a great deal more. But, when I think back to my time at BC Law, these are the progress points—the proverbial highway markers as it were—that map out the last three years for me temporally. These events were the points at which “life” most intruded into law school. Law school is all-consuming in a way I do not think I fully comprehended before I began my 1L year. I had worked for five years before returning to school, including three and a half years in a high-pressure role in New York City. But nothing prepared me for the way that law school threatened to take over and take me away from my sense of self. The death of my father, marrying my wife, cementing my life over in the U.S.: these were the events and the life-is-what-happens-to-you-while-you’re-busy-making-other-plans moments that burst the illusion of the bubble of law school for me. 

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If It’s Meant to Be, It Will Be

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

When I was around 9 years old, my mom bought me a brown dress to wear to my sister’s Bat Mitzvah. I loved that dress, but we knew it would be difficult to find shoes to match. My only real option was to find a pair in the same, specific brown, so we put the dress in a shopping bag and went to the mall.

We went to store after store finding shoes that were too uncomfortable, too hard to walk in, or, of course, the wrong shade of brown, until we found the perfect pair. Not too high of a heel, a flattering shape, the right price, and almost the exact color of the dress. The only problem was, they didn’t have my size. This was in 2006 and online shopping wasn’t exactly what it is today, so if they didn’t have the shoes in the store, we weren’t going to be able to buy them. My mom put the shoe back on the display, looked at me, and said, “It wasn’t meant to be.” She walked out, and I followed.

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Our Dreams Are Not Just Our Own

/ Seung Hye Yang / Leave a comment

Two years ago, I watched as my mother ironed my clothes on the frayed wooden floors of our home in Queens in preparation for my first day as a summer associate at a Biglaw firm. I hadn’t realized that the only professional suit I owned was badly wrinkled from my travels between Boston and New York. Frustrated with the slow pace and sloppiness of my handiwork, my mom–like any other impatient mom watching her daughter panic over clothes–took over. She used the floor in lieu of our lack of a proper ironing board, wielding the same iron that we’ve had since we immigrated to the United States 20 years ago. Her wizened hands smoothed out the creases in my blazer, and I wondered how much time had passed while I hadn’t even noticed that my mom had grown old in the years she waited for me to achieve my dream.

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Take a Break from Studying: The Pets of BC Law (2024 Edition)

/ Reilly Doak / Leave a comment

As we embark on final exams and the end of a semester, I’m grateful to wrap up my final BC Law Impact Blog post with the pets of BC, thanks to everyone’s stellar submissions of their adorable pets. My niche at the blog has not been hard-hitting journalism, and I’m happy not to start now.

Cooper: Caleb Brady’s Golden Doodle

Caleb is a 2L from Lakeville, MN and Cooper is his 3-year-old Golden Doodle who is energetic, loving, and [a little too] friendly.

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These New BC Law Employment Numbers are Crazy Good

/ kristievhoang / Leave a comment

Numbers talk. 

BC Law’s Career Services office submitted its employment data to the American Bar Association this past month. Of a class of 243 students, 239 (or 97.9%) were employed, with 96.7% in a full-time, long-term, bar-passage required or JD advantage position.

72% were employed in law firms, and 22% were employed in positions in government, public interest, or a judicial clerkship. Massachusetts was the most popular destination for students post-graduation, with New York and California following behind. 

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Five Tips for Success When Applying for Law Review

/ Jonathan Bertulis-Fernandes / Leave a comment

As one of the Editors in Chief of the Boston College Law Review this year—and in keeping with my general life goal of seeking to encourage as many people as possible to consider law review—I thought I’d put together some quick tips for success in the application process. For my dear anxious 1Ls: I was in your shoes two years ago. I was exhausted. I was limping towards the summer break and trying to wrap my head around the commerce clause. But I did the application and got offered a spot on law review. And you can too. Here are my top tips for journal application success:

  1. Treat it like a job

Channel your inner Dolly Parton and treat putting together your journal application materials as a job. Take a couple of days off to recover from the post-finals malaise, then hit the ground running (but within the confines of an eight-hour-workday). Start work on the materials at 9 and finish at 5. You do not have to spend all of your waking hours on the materials—see my next point.

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The House TikTok Ban is an Empty Threat

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This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in TIME, and was reposted in the AEIdeas Blog.

Last month, the House of Representatives proudly voted to ban TikTok unless its corporate parent sells the app within six months. But proponents eager to strike a blow against the Chinese government might not celebrate just yet. There are three main problems with the proposed TikTok ban: it’s probably unconstitutional, it’s practically unenforceable, and, even if it worked, it wouldn’t solve the problem of China gathering sensitive data about American users.

Other than that, it’s fine.

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Law School in Action: Entrepreneurship & Innovation Clinic

/ Tess Halpern / Leave a comment

Boston College Law School gives its students a wide range of classes to take that are taught by some of the best scholars in the field. Yet, while learning about the law in a classroom is crucial to becoming a successful attorney, nothing prepares you for day-to-day practice more than getting hands-on experience before graduating. That’s where BC Law’s clinics come in.

Law students in their second and third years of study can apply for coveted spots in any of the school’s fifteen clinics. No matter what someone’s legal interest is, there’s a clinic for them! To help students better understand the opportunities available to them, the BC Law Impact Blog is highlighting each of these clinics this semester. Here is our interview with the director of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Clinic, Sandy Tarrant.

Tell us about your clinic!

The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Clinic (EIC) is a transactional clinic where students represent very early-stage businesses on transactional matters. Working under my supervision, students provide a range of business law, intellectual property, and transactional services to operating businesses and founders hoping to start them. Our clients include technology entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, brick and mortar businesses, nonprofit organizations and, from time to time, artists of different types. Often, some clients are Boston College student entrepreneurs! These clients come to us with legal needs ranging from entity formation, governance matters, and trademark applications, to contract drafting and negotiation, regulatory compliance, and asset purchases and sales.

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