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Faculty Profile
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Leigh Anenson
Associate Professor
Robert H. Smith School of Business
Logistics, Business and Public Policy
3429 Van Munching Hall
College Park, MD 20742-1815
Phone: 301-405-4105
E-mail:
lanenson@rhsmith.umd.edu
Curriculum
Vitae

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Professor Anenson teaches business law at the Robert
H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, and is the faculty advisor
to the Business Law Society. She was honored with the Smith School Top 15
Percent Teaching Awards for the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and the 2009-2010 academic
years.
Professor Anensons research involves rethinking the
role of ancient equity in contemporary court practice in the United States. Her
work focuses on developing a better understanding of the doctrines of unclean
hands, laches, and estoppel. She is formulating an overarching theory,
based upon a critical historical analysis of equity jurisprudence, to confront
the confusion in the case law on the role of these defenses in modern business
litigation.
Equitable defenses arise in virtually all
business-related cases. They apply against judge-made as well as statutory
claims under both state and federal law. These defenses span an ever widening
array of subject areas, from intellectual property to business organizations to
contract. Because their application results in dismissal, the efficacy of
equitable defenses has important implications for commercial law.
Professor Anensons current inquiry aims to incorporate
business ethics into legal decision-making by analyzing and expanding the use of
the equitable theory of unclean hands. Her most recent paper integrates and
extends research in the fields of business, ethics, and law by evaluating the
use of this equitable doctrine to better align executive pay and performance and
remedy excessive compensation. She is also examining a species of unclean hands,
the inequitable conduct doctrine, in the field of patent law in light of the
recent decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Therasense, Inc.
v. Becton, Dickinson & Co. to rehear and determine the defense en banc.
Professor Anenson presented her unclean hands research
as a Parsons Visitor (sponsored by the Ross Parsons Centre for Commercial,
Corporate, and Taxation Law) in the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney,
Australia, during the Fall Semester 2009. For the Fall Term 2010, she has an
appointment at the University of Cambridge, England, where she is a Visiting
Fellow in Equity Law at Wolfson College and a Visitor to the Law Faculty.
The Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB)
honored Professor Anenson with its Early Career Achievement Award in 2007. She
has more than a dozen articles published in law reviews at top universities.
Four articles have also been published in the American Business Law Journal
(ABLJ), which is the premier peer-reviewed journal in business law. Her
unpublished research has been awarded the Holmes-Cardozo Distinguished Paper at
the Annual International Conferences of the ALSB in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2009.
It has also been recognized numerous times as outstanding paper at other
conferences. Her published research has earned Hoeber Awards for excellence in
research in the ABLJ and for the outstanding article in the Journal of
Legal Studies Education. Her articles have been relied on by judges and
attorneys in court memoranda and opinions and cited by scholars in academic
journals.
Professor Anenson is an editor of the International
Business Law Review and the American Business Law Journal. She has
served as the President of the International Section of the ALSB as well as its
Pacific Southwest Region. She is a member of the American Society of
International Law, the American Bar Association (Litigation and International
Sections), and is a Fulbright Senior Specialist Candidate in the area of
international law.
Before embarking on an academic career, Professor
Anenson worked in the private practice of law and business. She has expertise in
international logistics, corporate law, and litigation. She has consulted with
global corporations as well as domestic and foreign governments. She has also
represented multi-national and other major companies in court and other dispute
resolution tribunals. Professor Anenson joined the Smith School faculty in 2007.
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