Law plays a key role in determining the level of entrepreneurial action in society. Legal rules seek to define property rights, facilitate private ordering, and impose liability for legal wrongs, thereby attempting to establish conditions under which individuals may act. These rules also channel the development of technology, regulate information flows, and determine parameters of competition. Depending on their structure and implementation, legal rules can also discourage individuals from acting. It is thus crucial to determine which legal rules and institutions best enable entrepreneurs, whose core function is to challenge incumbency. This volume assembles legal experts from diverse fields to examine the role of law in facilitating or impeding entrepreneurial action. Contributors explore issues arising in current policy debates, including the incentive effect of legal rules on startup activity; the role of law in promoting or foreclosing market entry; and the effect of entrepreneurial action on legal doctrine.

Growing numbers of employees, consumers, and investors want companies to be truly good; these stakeholders will accept lower economic returns in order to support companies that prioritize sustainability, fair wages, and fair trade. Unlike charities or non-profit organizations, such companies - or social enterprises - are not only permitted but also expected to produce an economic return for investors. Yet, unlike traditional business ventures, social enterprises have no obligation to maximize profits, even on a long-term basis. In this comprehensive volume, Benjamin Means and Joseph W. Yockey bring together leading legal scholars and practitioners to offer an authoritative guide to social enterprise law and policy. The Cambridge Handbook of Social Enterprise Law takes stock of the field and charts a course for its future development. It should be read by entrepreneurs, investors, practitioners, academics, students and anyone else interested in how companies are evolving to address new demands for capitalism with a conscience.

This Handbook grapples conceptually and practically with what the sharing economy - which includes entities ranging from large for-profit firms like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Taskrabbit, and Upwork to smaller, non-profit collaborative initiatives - means for law, and how law, in turn, is shaping critical aspects of the sharing economy. Featuring a diverse set of contributors from many academic disciplines and countries, the book compiles the most important, up-to-date research on the regulation of the sharing economy. The first part surveys the nature of the sharing economy, explores the central challenge of balancing innovation and regulatory concerns, and examines the institutions confronting these regulatory challenges, and the second part turns to a series of specific regulatory domains, including labor and employment law, consumer protection, tax, and civil rights. This groundbreaking work should be read by anyone interested in the dynamic relationship between law and the sharing economy.

In class actions, attorneys effectively hire clients rather than act as their agent. Lawyer-financed, lawyer-controlled, and lawyer-settled, this entrepreneurial litigation invites lawyers to act in their own interest. John Coffee’s goal is to save class action, not discard it, and to make private enforcement of law more democratically accountable.

Social enterprises represent a new kind of venture, dedicated to pursuing profits for owners and benefits for society. Social Enterprise Law provides tools that will allow them to raise the capital they need to flourish. Social Enterprise Law weaves innovation in contract and corporate governance into powerful protections against insiders sacrificing goals such as environmental sustainability in the pursuit of short-term profits. Creating a stable balance between financial returns and public benefits will allow social entrepreneurs to team up with impact investors that share their vision of a double bottom line. Brakman Reiser and Dean show how novel legal technologies can allow social enterprises to access capital markets, including unconventional sources such as crowdfunding. With its straightforward insights into complex areas of the law, the book shows how a social mission can even be shielded from the turbulence of an acquisition or bankruptcy. It also shows why, as the metrics available to measure the impact of social missions on individuals and communities become more sophisticated, such legal innovations will continue to become more robust. By providing a comprehensive survey of the U.S. laws and a bold vision for how legal institutions across the globe could be reformed, this book offers new insights and approaches to help social enterprises raise the capital they need to flourish. It offers a rich guide for students, entrepreneurs, investors, and practitioners.

Modern cases highlight the legal principles involving parties and situations that are entrepreneurial in nature in this one-of-a kind text. Students are presented with solid doctrine in the various disciplines covered in Entrepreneurship Law and come to understand their interrelatedness. A chronological approach, from the conception of the idea through all stages of the business, includes potential exit strategies such as the sale of the venture or an initial public offering. Hypotheticals, in the form of a running case study based on the authors’ vast experience as practicing attorneys, focus on the very real issues entrepreneurs face. The authors teach at Northwestern Law, well-known for its entrepreneurship course, which is one of the longest-running in the United States. Entrepreneurship Law: Cases and Materials is the only law school casebook of its kind. New to the Second Edition: New cases and readings reflecting changing doctrine in employment law, intellectual property, and securities law (including crowdfunding) Greater attention to social entrepreneurs, including the addition of public benefit corporations, L3Cs, and nonprofits to the chapter on creating an entity Refreshed and updated readings and materials reflecting current trends and practices in financing of entrepreneurial ventures Updates reflecting feedback from current adopters and students in the authors’ course at Northwestern Professors and student will benefit from: Modern cases that highlight the legal principles involving parties and situations that are entrepreneurial in nature Presents solid doctrine in the various disciplines covered in Entrepreneurship Law while also emphasizing their interrelatedness Provides a chronological approach to the subject, from the conception of the idea through all stages of the business, including potential exit strategies such as the sale of the venture or an initial public offering Contains hypotheticals and involved, practice-oriented skills-based problems that focus on actual issues entrepreneurs face that are informed by the authors’ real experiences as practicing attorneys Classroom tested by faculty at multiple law schools. Authors teach at Northwestern Law, well-known for its entrepreneurship course, one of the longest-running in the United States The only law school casebook of its kind Teaching materials Include: Website for adopting faculty with resources including sample syllabi, practice problems, and other curricular materials