D. Gordon Smith New Associate Dean for Faculty and Curriculum at the BYU Law School

Dean Rasband announced the appointment of D. Gordon Smith as the new associate dean for faculty and curriculum at the J. Reuben Clark Law School. Smith will assume the role from Thomas R. Lee.

“Gordon is an influential and productive scholar as well as a dedicated teacher who has great love for the law school,” Dean Rasband said.  “I am grateful that such a gifted and talented colleague would be willing to accept this assignment.  I am convinced the law school will be the long-term beneficiary of his service.”

Gordon Smith, recent recipient of the Glen L. Farr Professor of Law, researches corporate and securities law. He coauthored Business Organizations: Cases, Problems and Case Studies with Professor Cynthia Williams of the University of Illinois College of Law and is currently working on the first casebook of its kind, The Law of Entrepreneurial Finance, with Professor Larry Garvin of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Recently, Gordon Smith was a key participant at the AALS Mid-Year Meeting, Conference on Business Association. At this meeting he:

- Presented “Corporate Purpose: Evolution, Creation, Isomorphism,”
- Was a panelist on “What are the Objectives of Public Companies and Who Decides?”
- Moderated plenary session entitled “Transactional Law: What is the Big Idea?” and a break-out session on “Empirical Study of Contracts”

Prior to his career at BYU, Professor Smith taught law at the University of Wisconsin and at Lewis & Clark Law School. He was a visiting professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, Arizona State University College of Law, and Washington University School of Law. He taught courses at universities in China, Germany, Australia, Finland, and France. Professor Smith served as chair of the Section on Business Associations of the Association of American Law Schools.

Before entering academe, Professor Smith clerked for Judge W. Eugene Davis in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and was an associate in the Delaware office of the international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Posted: July 20, 2009