Kauffman Foundation Gives CLS GrantsFor Research

 

Press contact:

James O’Neill 212-854-1584  Cell: 646-596-2935

 

June 20, 2008 (NEW YORK) - The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has awarded Columbia Law School two grants, including one for $450,00 that will help support a legal contracts research project by four Columbia Law School faculty.

 

The project, “Contracting for Innovation”, will focus on legal contracts in the context of technological innovation. The research team is led by Professor Robert Scott, and includes Professors Ronald Gilson, Victor Goldberg and Charles Sabel.

 

Scott, Columbia Law School’s Alfred McCormack Professor of Law, is a nationally recognized scholar and teacher in the fields of contracts, commercial transactions and bankruptcy. Scott, at left, is co-director of the Law School’s new Center for Contract and Economic Organization, which focuses on examining contracts and business structures created when a corporation goes global. The Center analyzes how economic theory and contract law affect real corporations.

 

The other grant supports the Kauffman Legal Research Fellowship. The first Kauffman Legal Research Fellow at Columbia Law School is Brett Dakin, at left. Dakin received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2003. Since 2005 he has been working at Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as an associate, focusing on intellectual property matters.

 

As the Kauffman Legal Research Fellow, Dakin will focus his study on how intellectual property rights encourage centralized decision-making structures within firms and specific industries, particularly those in which copyright plays a predominant role, such as computer software.

 

Both grants are part of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s initiative in “Law, Innovation and Economic Growth.” 

 

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is the 30th largest foundation in the United States with an asset base of approximately $2 billion. The vision of the Kauffman Foundation is to foster “a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities.”

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law.