{"id":19936,"date":"2010-09-09T08:22:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T12:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=19936"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:39:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:39:00","slug":"using-the-law-to-create-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/09\/using-the-law-to-create-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Using the Law to Create Value"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Robert<\/a>
Robert Bird, assistant professor of business law, in the School of Business. Photo by Frank Dahlmeyer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today\u2019s difficult economy demands that firms find new sources of competitive advantage. Recent research by Robert Bird, associate professor of business law in UConn\u2019s School of Business<\/a>, finds an answer in one of the most unlikely of sources \u2013 a firm\u2019s legal department.<\/p>\n

For too long, Bird contends, companies have overlooked an opportunity for capturing marketplace value right in their own offices. \u201cWe know that corporate counsel can skillfully evaluate risk, manage litigation, and confront regulatory challenges,\u201d he says. \u201cWe also know that the legal department is too often shunted aside when big business questions arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

When executives roll out a new product or consider a merger, lawyers are usually consulted for their legal advice but rarely their business advice. \u201cLegal experts can be a robust source for firm decision making,\u201d Bird says. \u201cLawyers and non-lawyers alike can use their knowledge of the legal and regulatory environment to create value for their firms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examples of using law as an opportunity already exist. In 2002, after a series of corporate scandals surfaced following the spectacular collapse of energy trader Enron, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to make corporations\u2019 finances more transparent and to hold executives responsible for financial disclosure. While many executives viewed the new legislation as a burden, a visionary few used the new law to improve their firm\u2019s investor ratings and streamline financial controls.<\/p>\n

In another instance, a large retail firm faced with a sex discrimination lawsuit transformed a burdensome judicial consent decree into a culture-changing and value-adding asset. Similarly, lawyers for a snack food enterprise reframed concern over health-related products litigation into market leadership of the no-trans fat snack market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese events are scattered throughout the pages of academic journals, but are rarely tied together as pieces of a firm\u2019s overall business plan,\u201d Bird says.<\/p>\n

Bird\u2019s research has received accolades from academic circles. His paper titled \u201cPathways of Legal Strategy\u201d was published in the Stanford Journal of Law, Business and Finance<\/a> <\/em>( vol. 14.1, 2008, pp. 1-41), <\/em>and received a junior faculty best paper award. In the article, he maintains that companies knowingly or unknowingly interact with their legal environment in their ordinary operations. However, while some firms avoid legal obligations altogether, others observe the letter of the law and overlook hidden value. \u201cMost companies just comply with the law and move on,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s an opportunity lost for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also has a working paper, \u201cLaw, Strategy, and Competitive Advantage,\u201d that is due for completion in early 2011. This paper explores how the conditions under which a firm operates may influence whether executives view the legal department as an opportunity. The size of a company, its in-house counsel, the industry, and the attitude of individual managers toward law are all variables.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t know why one firm uses law skillfully and another does not,\u201d Bird says. \u201cConsidering the possible sources helps answer this important question.\u201d<\/p>\n

His work has attracted attention from other universities. \u201cWe were intrigued by this timely and innovative concept,\u201d says Lynda Oswald, professor of business law at the University of Michigan\u2019s Ross School of Business, who invited Bird to present to her faculty.<\/p>\n

He was also invited to talk about his research at the University of St. Thomas\u2019 Opus College of Business in Minneapolis, where Michael Garrison, a professor of ethics and business law, says, \u201cHis work helped our undergraduates think of regulation as an opportunity and not just a cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bird also traveled to Finland, to give two invited presentations at universities in Turku. \u201cIt offered a wonderful opportunity to interact with international scholars interested in this emerging topic,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Bird says that research into the competitive advantage the law provides is just beginning, and compares his work to early debates over the role of information technology in the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 20 years ago,\u201d he observes, \u201cfirms openly questioned the value of IT. Some executives saw little benefit beyond back order processing. Writers questioned whether it could provide a competitive advantage at all. Law today is like IT 20 years ago. Law is now the last great resource of competitive advantage, and with ongoing vigilance, managers can unlock this untapped opportunity inside their own companies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A firm\u2019s legal department can provide a new source of competitive advantage, says Robert Bird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-19936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 02:20:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19936"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36856,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19936\/revisions\/36856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19936"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=19936"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}