Faculty Profile

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

Professor Anenson teaches business law at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She is the faculty advisor to the Business Law Society and to the Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity. 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 Anenson’s 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 to 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 Anenson’s current inquiry aims to incorporate business ethics into legal decision-making by analyzing the equitable theory of unclean hands. Her most recent publication integrates and extends research in the fields of business, ethics, and law by evaluating the use of this 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 en banc by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co.

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 had an appointment at the University of Cambridge, England, where she was a Visiting Fellow in Commercial Equity Law at Wolfson College and a Visitor to the Law Faculty. She is currently a Senior Fellow in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University.

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 cited in scholarly articles and treatises and relied on by courts in their opinions. In particular, her work has been quoted or cited by the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, the intermediate courts of appeal in Washington and New York, the Delaware Court of Chancery, and the federal district courts of Washington, Illinois, and New Mexico.

Professor Anenson is a former editor of the American Business Law Journal and the International Business Law Review. She has served as the President of the International Section of the ALSB as well as its Pacific Southwest Region.

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.