Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander, Associate Professor of Employment Law & Legal Studies, reviews business law with a group of students.

Welcome to the Legal Studies Program, the Terry College’s base for teaching and scholarship at the intersection of law and business. The mission of this department is to teach students about a crucial factor that affects all business operations: the law.

The department’s graduate and undergraduate courses are designed to teach students about the role of law as the foundation for a successful business. The Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business course emphasizes a variety of aspects of the law that will affect our students in business, including legal institutions, dispute resolution, regulatory and substantive law, such as the Constitution, contracts, torts, criminal law, intellectual property, employment law, antitrust law, securities law and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Upper level courses are designed to give students a more in-depth view about specific areas of the law:

• employment law
• negotiation and alternative dispute resolution
• business law and
• laws in the international context affecting business

The department offers an area of emphasis in legal studies for international business majors.

Research is also an important component of their work. Legal studies faculty are engaged in research on a variety of subjects, including the crucial role of property for business, employment discrimination law, trade secret protection, and international laws affecting employees in a global business. Recent publications are in top-ranked journals in the discipline. Faculty also actively participate in the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, regularly presenting papers at their annual meetings.