THE INSTITUTE OF DELAWARE CORPORATE AND BUSINESS LAW

An Interactive Forum

The  Institute of Delaware Corporate and Business Law serves as a forum for the interaction between business law scholarship and business law practice. The law governing both corporations and other business entities profits from active engagement among lawyers, judges, legislators, and scholars who practice, study, and define it. There is little denying that Delaware’s corporate law is the nation’s corporate law; evidencing this is the fact that almost one million businesses are organized in Delaware, including more than half of the Fortune 500.

Because the Institute is located in Delaware, it offers unparalleled proximity and access to the legal system that governs a multitude of the nation’s corporations. Through its web blog, other faculty publications, and educational programs, the Institute offers an academic forum that facilitates scholarly exchange on pertinent, timely corporate and business law issues. Delaware judges often teach for the Institute, and the students in the program have a vast range of externship, clerkship, and fellowship opportunities offering hands-on experience.  Additionally, the Institute hosts an array of academic programs, distinguished lectures, and symposia. The governing credo of the Institute is “corporate and business law scholarship in service of practice.”

Fellowships:

The John F. Schmutz Corporate and Business Law Institute Fellowship Award is a fellowship that is awarded each year to a current law student who is either a member of the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law or enrolled in the Business Organizations Law Certificate Program. Generally, the Fellowship recipient will help organize the Pileggi Lecture and the Annual Symposium, in addition to working closely with Professor Hamermesh. The Schmutz fellow also assists with the development of the Institute’s website and provides occasional research assistance for Institute faculty.

The Josiah Oliver Wolcott Fellowship offers five students each year the opportunity to serve as a Wolcott Fellow for the justices of the Supreme Court of Delaware while receiving academic credit and a scholarship grant. Delaware Journal of Corporate Law members are often considered for Wolcott Fellowship positions.