On April 3rd, Emory University School of Law celebrated the opening of the William and Jane Carney Center for Business and Transactional Law, funded by a $6 million gift, the largest in the school’s history. A ribbon cutting was followed by a keynote address by Jonathan Macey, Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law, Corporate Finance and Securities Law at Yale Law School on “Looking to the Future of Jurisdictional Competition for Corporate Charters.”

 The Center will further strengthen the school’s nationally recognized Center for Transactional Law and Practice, while engaging more holistically with other areas of business law. 

 William J. "Bill" Carney, a cornerstone of Emory Law for more than three decades, is once again helping to shape its future with this transformative $6 million gift to create the Center. The investment is driven by the former professor’s deep commitment to combining strong legal education with skills key to business practice, including training in contract drafting, deal negotiations, investment and capital raising, and mergers and acquisitions.

Carney’s vision aligns closely with that of Dean Rich Freer, whom Carney has known since Freer joined the Emory Law faculty 41 years ago. 

“Dean Freer has good values, both academic and professional,” Carney says. “He understands the practice of law and what students need, and I believe he will lead the business law component of Emory Law into prominence.”

Central to Carney’s vision – and Freer’s – is melding legal education, imparted by Emory’s distinguished law faculty, with practical skills training to allow graduates to enter the profession practice-ready. He believes his gift is a transformative investment that will not only leverage Emory Law’s program in Atlanta but will also be instrumental in continuing to attract leading scholars in business law.

“The Center for Transactional Law and Practice was established in 2007 when Professor Bill Carney recognized that law students who wanted to be deal lawyers needed their own curricular path,” says Sue Payne, Executive Director of the William and Jane Carney Center for Business and Transactional Law. “Law schools have traditionally turned out would-be litigators, requiring everyone to learn how to write briefs and argue in court. But ask any practicing attorney if they learned how to draft a contract or negotiate a deal in law school. Most will say no.”

Background: 

• William Carney taught law at Emory for 34 years before retiring in 2012. He led the founding of the Center for Transactional Law and Practice in 2007 and, in 2015, provided a matching gift of $1 million to strengthen its work. 

• Emory Law is ranked #22 nationally in Business and Commercial Law, reflecting the impact of scholarship by its business law faculty and the success of the Center for Transactional Law and Practice. Link to additional Information