Professor Renee Jones teaches and writes in the areas of corporate and securities law. Her courses at BC Law include Corporations, Securities Regulation, Corporate Governance and a Financial Regulation Seminar. She received her AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and her J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School. In 2005-2006, she was the Eugene P. Beard Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Harvard University’s Edmund J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. Professor Jones is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She has also served as the Co-Chair of the Securities Law Committee of the Boston Bar Association. She received the Faculty Award for Inspirational Achievement from the Boston College Law Business & Law Society in 2010. Professor Jones’s scholarship focuses on corporate governance and the federal-state relationship in corporate regulation. She also writes about the impact of enforcement practices on corporate ethics and integrity. Her most recent article, Toward a Public Enforcement Model for Directors’ Oversight Duties (with Michelle Welsh) (Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law) draws lessons from the Australian model of corporate law enforcement. It recommends implementation of a system of public enforcement for fiduciary duties of corporate directors in the United States. Professor Jones has also written several articles on corporate federalism. Her article "Rethinking Corporate Federalism in the Era of Corporate Reform" (Iowa Journal of Corporate Law) was reprinted in Corporate Practice Commentator as one of the top corporate law articles of the year. Professor Jones is a frequent commentator on corporate law, securities law and the recent financial crisis. She has appeared at conferences at law schools across the country to address corporate and securities law issues. Professor Jones has been selected to present her work at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Schools in 2004, 2007 and 2010. Among her many professional and community activities, Professor Jones has served as Co-Chair of the Securities Law Committee of the Boston Bar Association. She has also served as a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, the editorial board of Human Rights Magazine, and the New England Committee of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Before joining BC Law in 2002, Professor Jones practiced for eight years at the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow where she represented private and public companies on corporate and securities matters.
Articles
Toward a Public Enforcement Model for Directors' Duty of Oversight (with Michelle Anne Welsh), Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (2012)
This Article proposes a public enforcement model for the fiduciary duties of corporate directors. Under...
The Role of Good Faith in Delaware: How Open-Ended Standards Help Delaware Preserve Its Edge, New York Law School Law Review (2011)
This Article traces the development of the good faith doctrine in Delaware and links shifts...
Back to Basics: Why Financial Regulatory Overhaul is Overrated, Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal (2010)
Will the SEC Survive Financial Regulatory Reform?, University of Pittsburgh Law Review (2010)
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) conspicuous failures during the financial crisis of 2008 have...
Legitimacy and Corporate Law: The Case for Regulatory Redundancy, Washington University Law Review (2009)
This article provides a democratic assessment of the corporate law making structure in the United...
Contributions to Books
Corporate Governance and Accountability, Corporate Governance - Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Practice (2010)
This book chapter on Corporate Governance and Accountability is a contribution to the book CORPORATE...
Selected Professional Activities
Rethinking Risk, Boston College Law School Faculty Colloquium (2012)
The paper examines the connection between the personal misconduct of corporate executives and scandals caused...
Corporate Law Discussion Group on the Dodd-Frank Act, Southeast Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting (2011)
The contribution to a roundtable discusssion explored the difficulties of ensuring that corporate directors comply...