Lisa M. Fairfax, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Business Law and Director of the GW Corporate Law and Governance Initiative, authored one of the 10 best corporate and securities articles of 2019, The Securities Law Implications of Financial Illiteracy, 104 Va. L. Rev. 1065 (2018).
The article was chosen by law professors in the areas of corporate and securities law. It was selected from nearly 400 articles published in legal journals in 2019 in a poll taken by the Corporate Practice Commentator. The results of this year’s poll, as well as those for the previous 25 years for which the list has been compiled, are available on the publication’s website.
Professor Fairfax argues in her award-winning article that “America’s financial illiteracy poses a significant, widespread, and long-term challenge for our federal securities regime because that regime is premised almost entirely on disclosure as the best form of investor protection and, by extension, on investors’ ability to understand disclosure.” She says that we must take the financial illiteracy problem much more seriously and offers suggestions for moving forward.
Professor Fairfax teaches courses in the business area including Corporations, a Securities Law Seminar, and Contracts II. Her scholarly interests include corporate governance matters, fiduciary obligations, board diversity, shareholder activism, affinity fraud, and securities fraud. In addition to her many law review articles, Professor Fairfax is the author of the book Shareholder Democracy: A Primer on Shareholder Activism and Participation. She also has written several book chapters on board independence.
Professor Fairfax is a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the SEC Historical Society Board of Advisors, and the BYU Law School Board of Advisors. She also serves as co-director of the DirectWomen Board Institute, which promotes board diversity by identifying and supporting qualified women attorneys to serve as board candidates.