Phillips-Sawyer named inaugural Wilson Professor in Business Law

Abstract

The School of Law is pleased to share the establishment of the Jane W. Wilson Professorship in Business Law by an anonymous donor. This professorship will be held by a scholar who is a leader in business law and who is engaged in a combination of teaching, research and public service.

The inaugural holder of this position will be Laura Phillips-Sawyer, an expert in U.S. antitrust law and policy. Broadly, she is interested in how and why economic regulation changes over time. Before joining UGA in 2020, she was an assistant professor at Harvard Business School.

She teaches Antitrust Law as well as a new course, Antimonopoly and American Democracy, in the school’s undergraduate minor — Law, Jurisprudence, and the State. This new course, which is also offered as an Economics major elective, was made possible by a generous grant from the Stanton Foundation.

Phillips-Sawyer holds courtesy appointments in UGA’s Economics Department and History Department. She has also taught courses offered by UGA’s Honors College, Terry College of Business and Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Notably, she received Terry College’s Nourse Outstanding MBA Teacher Award for the MBA elective curriculum in 2021 for her course Business, Government, and the International Economy.

She is the author of American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Corporatism, and the ‘New Competition,’ 1890-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2018). More recently, she has published in two leading journals: “Restructuring American Antitrust Law: Institutionalist Economics and the Antitrust Labor Immunity, 1890-1940s” in the University of Chicago Law Review (2022) and “Voting Trusts and Antitrust: Rethinking the Role of Shareholder Rights and Private Litigation in Public Regulation, 1880s to 1930s” in the Law & History Review (2021) (with N. Lamoreaux).

In addition to the establishment of this professorship, Jane Wilson, a victim of domestic violence, was previously memorialized at the law school in 2019 when a $1 million gift was pledged to support its Family Justice Clinic – which now bears her name – and to create the Jane W. Wilson Distinguished Law Fellowship.

This professorship, which was made possible by matching funds from the UGA Foundation, will aid the School of Law as it continues to redefine what it means to be a great national public institution by offering a world-class, hands-on, purpose-driven educational experience with a pioneering commitment to accessibility and affordability.

"I am grateful to the anonymous donor, an individual who has found success at the intersection of law and business, for this gift and to the UGA Foundation for its continued support," said Dean Peter B. "Bo" Rutledge. "Endowments such as these truly make a difference and help the School of Law offer a first-rate education to the next generation of legal leaders."

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