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54 Sw. L. Rev. 1 (2025)
Foreword: Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of the Benefit Corporation

handle is hein.journals/swulr54 and id is 9 raw text is: FOREWORD: TOWARD A MORE COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE BENEFIT CORPORATION Joan MacLeod Heminway- In Becoming a Public Benefit Corporation,' Professor Michael Dorff has done what so many of us who write practical applied legal scholarship aspire to do: write a lucid, accessible book that translates a hard-earned knowledge of legal doctrine, theory, policy, and practice into pragmatic support and advice for the boots-on-the-ground stakeholders we desire to serve. This book is a useful resource for business entrepreneurs, investors, students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers alike, especially for those desiring answers to the book's two foundational (referred to by Professor Dorff as bottom line) questions relating generally to the utility of the benefit corporation as a legal form of entity. In Becoming a Public Benefit Corporation, Professor Dorff first seeks to assess whether benefit corporations are a reasonable legal form for entrepreneurs and investors.2 Next, he desires to evaluate whether these new legal forms produce companies that do a better job of internalizing their negative externalities and producing positive externalities, resulting in an economy that works better for people and the planet.3 Both objectives are a relatively tall order as deliverables. As those who read to the end of the book well know, Professor Dorff offers a characteristically enthusiastic and positive response to the first question, but he is more equivocal and nuanced in his response to the second.' This Foreword offers a brief introduction to the Southwestern Law Review's symposium issue dedicated to Professor Dorff's book. It starts with * Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee College of Law. New York University School of Law, J.D. 1985; Brown University, A.B. 1982. Work on this Foreword was supported with a summer research grant from The University of Tennessee College of Law. 1. MICHAEL B. DORFF, BECOMING A BENEFIT CORPORATION: ExPRESS YOUR VALUES, ENERGIZE STAKEHOLDERS, MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE (2024). 2. Id. at 213. 3. Id. at 214. 4. Id. 1