Frank Gevurtz
Distinguished Professor of Law Frank Gevurtz is — in the words of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — a "leading commentator" on corporate law. Courts, lawyers, students and scholars in the United States and abroad look to his treatise, Corporation Law, for authoritative guidance. Professor Gevurtz has written numerous law review articles addressing topics in corporate and securities laws, the laws of other business organizations, the antitrust laws, and the application of U.S. laws to overseas activities. These articles have clarified but also challenged long-standing corporate law doctrines, explored often-unrecognized practical implications of various business organization laws, and proposed innovative solutions to legal problems. They often reflect Professor Gevurtz' use of interdisciplinary approaches by undertaking historical research, empirical studies, and comparative law analysis.
Professor Gevurtz' works have been cited hundreds of times, including by the Supreme Courts of Delaware, Georgia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Wyoming, and by United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Ninth and D.C. Circuits. His proudest moment came, however, when his mother was able to tell her friends that it was her son whose work on the origins of the corporate board of directors was quoted by a columnist writing in The New Yorker.
Professor Gevurtz' work shows an equally strong commitment to teaching future lawyers. His casebook, Business Planning (now in its fifth edition) has guided students at McGeorge and scores of other law schools from coast to coast through an elaborate problem set in which they aid clients in forming, financing, restructuring and selling a company, thereby bringing experiential legal education to students interested in being business attorneys. Professor Gevurtz also developed and serves as series editor for the revolutionary 23-volume Global Issues book series, which are designed to respond to the growing impact of globalization on legal practice by facilitating the introduction of international and comparative law issues in core law school courses.
Professor Gevurtz frequently speaks on panels of leading legal educators exploring the need to globalize the law school curriculum. The law schools at the University of California, Berkeley, and Davis, as well as Catholic University Portugal in Lisbon, repeatedly request Professor Gevurtz to teach as a visiting professor. In 2006, the University of the Pacific conferred its Distinguished Faculty Award on Professor Gevurtz in recognition of his excellence in teaching and scholarship. Gevurtz served as the Associate Dean for Scholarship at McGeorge School of Law from 2019-2023.
Prior to joining the McGeorge faculty in 1982, Professor Gevurtz practiced with the prestigious law firm of O'Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles. He received his Bachelor of Science degree (in physics) from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley.
BS, University of California, Los Angeles
JD, University of California, Berkeley
Representative Scholarship and Activities
Leading Books
CORPORATION LAW (West, 1st ed. 2000, through 3d ed. 2021) (treatise)
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS LAW (West 2019) (with Sautter) (treatise)
BUSINESS PLANNING (Foundation Press, 1st ed. 1991, through 5th ed. 2015) (casebook)
GLOBAL ISSUES IN CORPORATE LAW (West, 2006) (casebook)
Selected Major Works on Core Corporate Law Doctrine
The Business Judgment Rule: Meaningless Verbiage or Misguided Notion? 67 So. Calif. L. Rev. 287 (1994).
Piercing Piercing: An Attempt to Lift the Veil of Confusion Surrounding the Doctrine of Piercing the Corporate Veil, 76 Or. L. Rev. 853 (1997).
Removing Revlon, 70 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1485 (2013).
The Shareholder Approval Conundrum, 60 Boston College L. Rev. 1831 (2019)
Selected Historical and Comparative Law Works
The Historical and Political Origins of the Corporate Board of Directors, 33 Hofstra L. Rev. 89 (2004).
Disney in a Comparative Light, 55 Am. J. Comp. L. 453 (2007).
The Globalization of Corporate Law: The End of History or a Never-ending Story?, 86 Wash. L. Rev. 475 (2011).
Selected Works Addressing Overseas Application and Impact of Laws
Determining Extraterritoriality, 56 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 341 (2014).
Globalizing Up Corporate Law, 68 SMU Law Review 741 (2015).
Selected Works Addressing Non-Corporate Forms of Business
Squeeze-outs and Freeze-outs in Limited Liability Companies, 73 Wash. U.L.Q. 497 (1995).
Why Delaware LLCs?, 91 Or. L. Rev. 57 (2012).
Selected Works Addressing Securities Regulation
Important Warning or Dangerous Misdirection: Rethinking Cautions Accompanying Investment Predictions, 83 Maryland L. Rev. _ (in press)
