Contracts Professors Meet at TJSL for International Conference

March 5, 2012

The 7th International Contracts Conference at TJSL was a great success!  The conference, which ran Friday and Saturday, March 2 & 3, drew more than 60 contracts law professors and attorneys from around the nation, and even a professor from Netyanya Academic College in Israel.  The conference was organized by TJSL Professor Eniola Akindemowo. 

Associate Dean for Academics, Eric Mitnick, welcomed the attendees on behalf of Dean Rudy Hasl with a speech referencing the intriguing construction history of TJSL’s new state-of-the-art building, including the discovery of a prehistoric mammoth and baleen whale.  

A highlight of the conference was the presentation, during dinner on Friday evening, of a life achievement award to one of the most respected professors and scholars of contracts law in the U.S., Professor Melvin Eisenberg, the Koret Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.  An honor panel discussed the scholarship and service of Professor Eisenberg on Friday morning, followed by a lunchtime address that day by Professor Eisenberg.  Professor Akindemowo presented Professor Eisenberg with an engraved crystal plaque during the Friday dinner.

Professor Omri Ben-Shahar, of the University of Chicago Law School, was presented with a check award from the AALS Contracts Section LawProfsBlog for the best contracts paper published in 2011. 

The conference progressed smoothly without a hitch.  All of the panels ran to time, the law school’s state-of-the-art equipment worked beautifully, and the attendees couldn’t stop talking about the great time they had.  Comments included: “Flawless – an impressively run conference,” “I couldn’t tear myself away from the panels…they were so interesting….,”  “A superbly run conference in a beautiful law building,” and “Very impressive – I’d love to visit here.”

“Organizing the international contracts conference was a huge task,” said Professor Akindemowo.  “I am grateful for the assistance and support that I received from my conference steering committee of professors from within TJSL and beyond, and the dedicated TJSL staff, without whom this conference would not have been such a magnificent success.”