When Mohamed Khimji was appointed the inaugural David Allgood Professor in Business Law in July 2016, Dean Bill Flanagan declared, “Our program will vault to new heights.” Professor Khimji is already proving him right, with initiatives in four key areas:
Curriculum development
Khimji taught his new Mergers & Acquisitions course in 2016-17. This year, he’s involved in setting up two new courses – Private Equity (taught by Michael Whitcombe, Law’85, Co-Chair of Private Equity Practice, McMillan LLP) and Accounting and the Law (taught by Professor Bertrand Malsch, Smith School of Business) – and re-offering Corporate Finance (taught by Sarah Bradley, Law’02, Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments).
Experiential learning opportunity
Queen’s will be the first Canadian law school to participate in the Transactional Law Meet at a U.S. university in 2018. This premier “moot” gives students hands-on experience in developing and honing transactional lawyering skills. Joining Khimji to supervise the Queen’s Team is Amelia Miao, Law’11, an associate with Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
New and expanded events
Professor Roberta Romano of Yale Law School gave the inaugural David Allgood Lecture in Business Law on October 23. Another first, “Law as a Launchpad,” involves a panel of prominent alumni discussing how they leveraged their law degree to the business world. Khimji is moderating the November 22 event. He also has a role in two Law’80 programs: Careers in Business Law and Lecture in Business Law.
Emerging research
A five-year $155,305 research grant awarded by SSHRC will fund Khimji’s project “Shareholder Democracy in Public Corporations – An Empirical and Economic Analysis.” This research will have far-reaching implications for law and policy-making in corporate governance. He also co-authored/edited Business Organizations: Practice, Theory and Emerging Challenges (2nd ed., Emond).
Next year, he’ll be joined by the first holder of the Stephen Sigurdson Professorship in Corporate Law and Finance. “As we work toward further designing and developing our business law program,” he says, “this second professorship will both accelerate that work and further establish Queen’s as a national leader in the field.”