Alan Palmiter

Alan Palmiter

William T. Wilson, III Presidential Chair for Business Law
Professor of Law

Alan Palmiter has a national and international reputation as a teacher-scholar of corporate law, securities regulation, sustainable corporations, energy law, and legal valuation.

He is interested in "corporate sustainability" and "corporate democracy." including corporate disclosures on and responses to climate change, shareholder participation in corporate voting, and the role of institutional shareholders in corporate governance.

He has authored top-selling books used to teach Corporations and Securities Regulation (published by Aspen Publishers and West Publishing). His articles have been published both nationally and internationally, and eight of them … Read more »

Alan Palmiter has a national and international reputation as a teacher-scholar of corporate law, securities regulation, sustainable corporations, energy law, and legal valuation.

He is interested in "corporate sustainability" and "corporate democracy." including corporate disclosures on and responses to climate change, shareholder participation in corporate voting, and the role of institutional shareholders in corporate governance.

He has authored top-selling books used to teach Corporations and Securities Regulation (published by Aspen Publishers and West Publishing). His articles have been published both nationally and internationally, and eight of them have been republished as among the best corporate/securities law articles of the year. His latest essays, Capitalism, heal thyself and Awakening Capitalism: A Paradigm Shift, are available on SSRN.

He has hosted symposia on Corporate Governance and Climate Change,The Sustainable Corporation, Agency Theory: Still Viable?, Future of Financial Disintermediation, Future of Sovereign Wealth Funds, and SMEs & Sustainability. He is on the board of Wake Forest's Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability (CEES).

He has also been a visiting law professor at Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), the University of Michigan, the University of Padova (Italy), the University of Bergamo (Italy), and Brooklyn Law School.

Before joining the Wake Forest Law faculty, he taught high school math in Medellín, Colombia, and practiced law with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Washington, D.C.

He was born in India and grew up in Bolivia and Toledo, Ohio. He and his wife have two children.


Education

  • JD, magna cum laude, University of Michigan Law School, 1980
  • BS in Mathematics, cum laude, Ohio State University, 1975

Publications

Books

Book Chapters

  • The Mutual Fund Investor, in Elgar Publishers guidebook on mutual funds (2017).
  • Laura Forlati and the Wake Forest Summer Program, in Liber Amicorum: Laura Picchio Forlati 6 (Prof Bernardo Cortese 2014).
  • Dark Matter in US Corporate Law (revised), in Obrigações Empresariais (Corporate Bonds) (2014).

Articles

Other

  • Mutual Fund Investors: Divergent Profiles, Seminar Series, Duke University School of Law (October 2017).
  • Corporate Triplespeak: Response of Investor-Owned Utilities to EPA's Proposed Clean Power Plan, AALS Annual Meeting, Section on Economic Globalization and Governance (January 2017).
  • Corporate Governance as Moral Psychology, Presenter (with précis) at Washington and Lee Law Review's 2016–2017 Lara D. Gass Symposium, Corporate Law, Governance, and Purpose: A Tribute to the Scholarship of Lyman Johnson and David Millon (November 2016).
  • Corporate Triplespeak: Response of Investor-Owned Utilities to EPA's Proposed Clean Power Plan, Presentation (with précis) at University of Kansas Law School (September 2016).
  • Climate Change Disclosure: A Failed SEC Mandate (January 2016).
  • Proportionality: Remedies in U.S. Insider Trading Cases, Lecture, Dipartamento di Diritto Publicco, Internzaionale e Comunitario, Università di Padova (May 2015).
  • Political Economy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Proposed Clean Power Plan, Speech, Dipartamento di Diritto Publicco, Internzaionale e Comunitario, Università di Padova (May 2015).
  • Corporate Governance: From Incentives Toward Integrity, Speech and Publication, Associazone per il Bene Comune, Forum on Ethics, Padova, Italy (May 2015).
  • The Sustainable Corporation?, Speech and Panel Discussion, Faculty of Law, Universitá Cattolica Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy (April 2013).
  • Dark Matter in Corporate Governance, Speech at Conference on Corporate Governance ( (July 2012).
  • Crowdfunding: Pricing Disclosure in Private Securities Offerings to Public Investors, Symposium on Securities Offering Exemptions, Ohio State Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal (April 2012) (April 2012).
  • US Corporate Governance: From Agency Theory to Integrity, Lectio Magistralis, Faculty of Law, University of Padua, Italy (May 2011) (May 2011).
  • Il sistema dei controlli negli Usa, Conference on Corporate Governance e 'sistema dei controlli' nella s.p.a., Fondazione CESIFIN, Florence, Italy [System of Controls in the USA, Conference on Corporate Governance and "Control Systems" in Italian Corporation] (April 2011).
  • Brief for Professors at Law and Business Schools as Amicus Curiae In Support of Respondents, Matrixx v. Siracusano (November 2010).
  • Mutual Fund Performance Ads: Inherently and Materially Misleading?, Institute of Law & Economics, University of Pennsylvania Law School (April 2010).
  • Duty of Obedience: The Forgotten Duty, Law Review Symposium on Corporate Duty of Good, New York Law School (November 2009).
  • Corporate Veil Piercing: Updated Empirical Data, Conference on Corporate Separateness, Vanderbilt School of Law, Nashville, TN (November 2009).
  • Corporate Veil Piercing: Updated Empirical Data, Faculty Workshop, Wake Forest University School of Law (October 2009).
  • Mutual Fund Voting: Role of ISS, Securities Law Symposium, School of Law, Villanova University (April 2009).
  • The Public Corporation as Private Constitution, Faculty Workshop, Roger Williams School of Law, Bristol, RI (March 2009).
  • N.C. Business Law Update, Prepared for N.C. Bar Ass'n Business Law Section Annual Meeting (February 2009).
  • Expert Report on Compliance with Fiduciary Duties and Standards under Rule 12b-1, In re American Funds Litigation (C.D. Cal. – Judge Feess) (February 2009).
  • The Public Corporation as Private Constitution, Conference on "Le Societa per Azioni nel Mercato Globale: Evoluzione dei Modelli" [The Corporation in the Global Market; Evolution of the Models], sponsored by Fondazione CESIFIN Alberto Predieri, Florence, Italy (March 2008).
  • N.C. Business Law Update, Prepared for N.C. Bar Ass'n Business Law Section Annual Meeting (February 2008).
  • Staying Public: Institutional Investors in U.S. Capital Markets, Presented at "Going Private Symposium," Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial and Commercial Law and SEC Historical Society (February 2008).
  • N.C. Business Law Update, Prepared for N.C. Bar Ass'n Business Law Section Annual Meeting (February 2007).
  • US Mutual Funds: The Awakening Behemoth?, Prepared for Anton Philips Fund Conference on Large Shareholder Participation in Corporate Governance, Tilburg University, Groenendael Philips Training Centre, Hilvarenbeek,The Netherlands (June 2006).
  • Corporate Criminality: Reflections on Political Economy, Comments at conference on Criminalization of Corporate Law: The Impact of Criminal Sanctions on Corporate Misconduct, University of Maryland School of Law (April 2006).
  • The Mutual Fund Board: A Failed Experiment in Regulatory Outsourcing, Presented at Brooklyn Law School Securities Enforcement Symposium (March 2006).
  • N.C. Business Law Update, Prepared for N.C. Bar Ass'n Business Law Section Annual Meeting (February 2006).
  • Corporations: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 2006).
  • Regulation of US Legal Profession: A Story of Market Protection, Prepared for First Congress of Conference of EU Notariats (CNUE), Rome, Italy (also translated into French) (October 2005).
  • N.C. Business Law Update, Prepared for N.C. Bar Ass'n Business Law Section Annual Meeting (February 2005).
  • Securities Regulation: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 2005).
  • The Talking Dog: US Securities Fraud Class Actions, Prepared for conference on Class Actions e Mercati Finanziari, University of Naples – Federico II, Naples Italy (December 2004).
  • Mutual Fund Directors: Roles Beyond Supervision, Presented at ABA/Maryland conference on mutual funds (November 2004).
  • N.C. Business Law Update, Prepared for N.C. Bar Ass'n Business Law Section Annual Meeting (February 2004).
  • The US Corporate Elephant (October 2003).
  • Corporations: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 2003).
  • N.C. Business Law Update (February 2002).
  • Guidebook for Board Members of N.C. Nonprofits (February 2002).
  • Securities Regulation: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 2002).
  • N.C. Business Law Update (September 2001).
  • What Every Criminal Defense Attorney Should Know About the New Immigration Laws, True Bill (NC Bar Ass'n Criminal Justice Section) (November 2000).
  • The Challenge of Financial Transparency in the United States (June 2000).
  • Corporate Governance in the United States - A Recent History (June 2000).
  • SEC Proposes To Reform the Regulation of Securities Offerings: Will the 'Aircraft Carrier' Survive? (June 1999).
  • N.C. Business Law Update (February 1999).
  • Law & Valuation: Cases and Materials (February 1999).
  • Corporations: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 1999).
  • Securities Regulation: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 1998).
  • Securities Law Developments (February 1997).
  • Corporations: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 1994).
  • Takeovers and Acquisitions (February 1992).
  • Corporations: Examples and Explanations (Aspen Law & Business 1989).

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Alan Palmiter
Contact Information
 336.758.5711

Worrell 3133
Expertise
  • Banking
  • Corporate Law, Governance, & Practice
  • Law & Economics
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Securities Markets & Regulation
  • Sustainability