Eric C. Chaffee
Distinguished University Professor
Office: LC 2014C
Campus Phone: 419.530.2948
Email: Eric.Chaffee@utoledo.edu
Eric Chaffee is a Distinguished University Professor, the highest permanent rank and honor The University of Toledo bestows on a faculty member for gaining national and international recognition in their field. He teaches courses relating to business law, contract law, tax law, and trusts & estates. Over the course of his career, he has received ten student-selected awards for his teaching.
A prolific writer, Professor Chaffee’s scholarship focuses on business law with an emphasis on compliance, cyberlaw, securities regulation, taxation, and business ethics. He is an author of the leading treatise on securities regulation in cyberspace. He is currently working on a treatise on the essential nature of the corporate form for Cambridge University Press. His work has been accepted for publication in numerous law reviews, including the Boston College Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, UC Davis Law Review, and Washington and Lee Law Review. He has published articles in specialty journals at various institutions, including Stanford Law School, New York University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and University of Michigan Law School.
Professor Chaffee is regularly invited to speak at symposia, conferences, workshops, and other events across the United States and abroad. He has presented at a variety of prestigious institutions, including Harvard Law School, University of Chicago Law School, and Georgetown University Law Center. In addition, he has lectured at institutions throughout Europe and China.
Professor Chaffee is actively involved in various legal professional organizations. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has served as chair of the Section on Securities Regulation of the American Association of Law Schools and chair of the Section on Scholarship of that institution as well. He is also a co-founder of the National Business Law Scholars Conference (the leading business law academic conference in the United States), and he currently sits on the executive committee of that organization.
Professor Chaffee is a sought-after legal commentator. He has been interviewed and quoted by numerous news outlets—including BBC News, Bloomberg, The Chicago Tribune, CNBC, CNN, The National Law Journal, NPR, Reuters, U.S. News & World Report, and The Wall Street Journal—on a variety of legal topics.
Before entering the legal academy, Professor Chaffee was an attorney with Jones Day, where he handled civil and criminal matters for numerous Fortune 500 companies. As a law student, he also spent time working at Legal Aid in both Philadelphia and Ohio. Throughout his career, Professor Chaffee has worked with tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, including serving on several boards and advising various institutions on legal issues.
Professor Chaffee is licensed to practice law in Ohio. He earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University.
Selected Recent Publications
Books
The Corporation Defined: Collaborative Theory and the Corporate Form (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2021).
Securities Regulation in Cyberspace (4th ed. 2018) (with Howard M. Friedman) (loose-leaf treatise with annual updates).
Global Issues in Securities Law (2013) (with Frank Gevurtz & Marc Steinberg).
Book Chapters
Securities Regulation and Artificial Intelligence: Regulating Robo-Advisers, in The Cambridge Handbook of Private Law and Artificial Intelligence (forthcoming).
Law Review Articles
Collaboration Theory and Corporate Tax Avoidance, 76 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 93 (2019).
Corporate Tax Avoidance and Honoring the Fiduciary Duties Owed to the Corporation and Its Stockholders, 58 Boston College L. Rev. 1425 (2017) (with Karie Davis-Nozemack).
A Call for Legislative Reform: Expanding the Extraterritorial Application of the Private Rights of Action Under Federal Securities Law While Limiting the Scope of Relief Available, 22 Stanford J.L. Bus. & Fin. 1 (2017).
Securities Regulation in Virtual Space, 74 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1387 (2017) (reprinted in the Securities Law Review 2018).
Collaboration Theory: A Theory of the Charitable Tax Exempt Nonprofit Corporation, 49 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1719 (2016).
An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Use of Ethical Intuition in Legal Compliance Decision Making for Business Entities, 74 Maryland L. Rev. 497 (2015).
The Death and Rebirth of Codes of Legal Ethics: How Neuroscientific Evidence of Intuition and Emotion in Moral Decision Making Should Impact the Regulation of the Practice of Law, 28 Georgetown J. Legal Ethics 323 (2015).
Answering the Call to Reinvent Legal Education: The Need to Incorporate Practical Business and Transactional Skills Training into the Curricula of America’s Law Schools, 20 Stanford J.L. Bus. & Fin. 121 (2015).
Regulating On-line Peer-to-Peer Lending in the Aftermath of Dodd-Frank: In Search of an Evolving Regulatory Regime for an Evolving Industry, 69 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 485 (2012) (with Geoffrey C. Rapp).
Standing Under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5: The Continued Validity of the Forced Seller Exception to the Purchaser-Seller Requirement, 11 U. Penn. J. Bus. L. 843 (2009).
Beyond Blue Chip: Issuer Standing to Seek Injunctive Relief Under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 Without the Purchase or Sale of a Security, 36 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1135 (2006).
Law Symposium Essays and Other Invited Work
Schrödinger’s Hacker: Insider Trading and Data Breaches, 14 Tenn. J.L. & Pol'y (forthcoming 2020).
A Theory of the Business Trust, 88 U. Cincinnati L. Rev. 797 (2020).
The Heavy Burden of Thin Regulation: Lessons Learned from the SEC's Regulation of Cryptocurrencies, 70 Mercer L. Rev. 615 (2019).
Regulation as Placeholder: Lessons Learned from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 3 Journal of Regulatory Compliance 4 (2019).
The Origins of Corporate Social Responsibility, 85U. Cincinnati L. Rev. 353 (2017) (featured on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation).
The Supreme Court as Museum Curator: Securities Regulation and the Roberts Court, 67 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 847 (2017).
An Oak is an Oak Is an Oak Is an Oak: The Disappointing Entrenchment in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund of the Implied Private Right of Action Under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, Inc., 9 N.Y.U. J.L. & Liberty 92 (2015).
From Legalized Business Ethics to International Trade Regulation: The Role of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Other Transnational Anti-Bribery Regulations in Fighting Corruption in the International Trade, 65 Mercer L. Rev. 701 (2014).
The Role of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Other Transnational Anti-Corruption Laws in Preventing or Lessening Future Financial Crises, 73 Ohio St. L.J. 1283 (2012).
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: A Failed Vision for Increasing Consumer Protection and Heightening Corporate Responsibility in International Financial Transactions, 60 American U. L. Rev. 1431 (2011).
Contemplating the Endgame: An Evolutionary Model for the Harmonization and Centralization of International Securities Regulation, 79 U. Cincinnati L. Rev. 587 (2010).
Finishing the Race to the Bottom: An Argument for the Harmonization and Centralization of International Securities Law, 40 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1581 (2010).