Emerson wins awards, calls for service
Gainesville, Fla. – Robert W. Emerson, Huber Hurst Professor of Law and Legal Studies and chair of Warrington’s management department, recently added two more research awards to his CV, garnering international board memberships in the process.
In early November, Emerson won the 2009 Best Paper Award from the Southeastern Academy of Legal Studies in Business (SEALSB) at their Annual Meeting in Miami. SEALSB is a professional association of legal studies professors from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Emerson’s paper, “Presumed Competent: Lawyers Advising Franchisees,” features empirical analysis of the amount and quality of legal advice for franchisees and the consequences related to franchise contracts and the law. This is Emerson’s second regional best paper award (in two attempts) over the past year.
And, for the second year in a row, Emerson was granted the Holmes-Cardozo Award. His paper, “Franchise Encroachment,” was deemed Best Paper at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB), the international organization for professors of legal studies. The paper discusses issues arising when a franchisor opens a new franchise or company outlet within the market area of an existing franchise. It will be published in the American Business Law Journal.
Emerson’s research has won him an international reputation, with work comparing franchise and procedural issues published in law journals, books, and international digests. This fall, he lectured on comparative franchise law at Université de Montpellier, Grenoble School of Management, HEC-Paris, and INSEAD. He has also been invited to join Fondation pour le Droit Continental (Foundation for Continental Law), as well as the International Distribution Institute, two European-based organizations dedicated to reform of commercial law internationally. Earlier this year, Emerson was inducted as an inaugural member to the 12-person Conseil Scientifique of the International Association of Judicial Officers (Union Internationale des Huissiers de Justice), based in Paris. The Association is an organization representing more than 70 countries worldwide. As the sole U.S. representative, he addressed nearly 1,000 delegates at the triennial meeting in Marseille, France (Sept. 2009). His work there, and with related organizations, is meant to provide greater understanding and cooperation between varying systems for gathering evidence, bringing cases, and enforcing judgments.
