LLM Guide reports that there's growing interest in LLM programs focusing on corporate governance:
Thanks to infamous scandals such as the fraudulent loss reportage at Enron in 2001, as well as the financial crisis of 2008 and ensuing recession, concern about corporate malfeasance is high.
But that means that legal regulation is also on the upswing--and so are jobs that require a legal knowledge of corporate compliance.
"On the corporate and finance end, after the financial crisis in 2008, there were so many additional regulations put in place, such as Dodd-Frank [Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010], and those “regulations have really had an impact on how companies do business," says Pam Kroh, director of graduate programs at Widener University Delaware Law School, which offers a corporate law regulatory analysis and compliance LL.M. concentration, as well as an LL.M. in corporate law and finance. ...
Officials say that these LL.M. programs are growing in popularity in response to a field that's expanding to meet new compliance requirements triggered by financial reforms such as Dodd-Frank, which brought about the greatest change to the United States' financial regulations since the Great Depression. Just as healthcare compliance programs grew in popularity as a field in response to the Affordable Care Act of 2010—“Obamacare”—corporate compliance programs are now expanding to meet the demand for professionals who understand how to help companies avoid the scandals and snafus that have dogged the financial world in recent decades. ...
Kroh from Widener says that students who pursue an LL.M. in corporate compliance are typically already practicing lawyers, working for companies such as Walmart or Johnson & Johnson, and are looking for that extra boost to their skills and expertise that they may not have received in their prior schooling.
I'm going to be teaching a corporate governance course next year that focuses on compliance issues. And I think UCLA could easily put together an LLM in compliance, which would also make a good complement to the Milken Institute. Using mostly existing courses we could offer an initial curriculum that for entrants with a US JD would look like this:
| Fall | Spring |
| The Law of Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance* | Advanced Corporation Law |
| Accounting for Lawyers | Executive Compensation |
| Legislation and Regulation | Cybersecurity Law |
| Securities Markets and Corporate Value | Regulation*** |
| Banking and Financial Regulation** | Internal Investigations** |
*: New course (Geoffrey Miller's casebook would be ideal)
**: New course
***: Anderson Business School course co-listed
Additional courses that could be developed with existing faculty might include:
Business Immigration
Employment and Workforce Compliance Law
Commercial Law Compliance
Environmental Compliance
Information and Technology Compliance
Ethics for the Business Lawyer
White Collar Crime
I think I'll run this up the flag pole.
