Instruction in Corporation Law Expanded

By HENRY M. BATES, ‘90

Professor of Law and Dean of the Law School


During the year 1929-1930 the Law School began an important expansion in the instruction 
in corporation law. Professor Laylin K. James, 
 who had had several years of practical experience in the 
most modern type of corporation 
work with one of the most widely 
known corporation law firms in 
New York City, and who had also 
taught the subject for three years, 
 took over the general course in Cor
poration Law. Professor James began at once the assembling of a library of modern corporation docu
ments of all kinds, particularly those
 relating to the corporate set-up and to the many and varied types of
 corporation securities. During the
 same year Mr. John E. Tracy, one
 of the leading corporation experts 
of Chicago, gave a course of lec
tures in the School, called "Corporation Practice."


These developments are the fore-
runners of a much more elaborate 
expansion of the work for next 
year. Mr. Tracy found such keen 
interest and pleasure in his work 
here that he has decided to give up 
his law practice and has accepted a
 professorship in the Law School. He and Mr. James 
together will deal with the entire field of corporation 
law and of business associations in general. For this 
purpose the courses in Partnership and Agency, and 
possibly certain topics from other courses, as, for ex
ample, Corporate Mortgages, will be turned over to 
them for harmonious and integral development
.

In addition, the subject treated by Mr. Tracy in his 
lectures last year, and the cognate subjects dealt with
 by Mr. James, will be developed into courses in advanced corporation work. The library of corporate
 
documents is being rapidly added to, and with this and 
other materials, Professors James and Tracy will con
duct seminar courses for graduate students and selected 
seniors, in the study of modern corporation developments, including the varied and 
complicated forms of corporations, 
 trusts, holding companies, and investment trusts. Processes of or
ganization, reorganization, merger, 
 management and control, will be in
tensively studied. 


Mr. Tracy, the new member of 
the faculty, was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, September 2, 1880, mov
ing at the age of eight to Tennessee
 with his parents where he attended 
public school and prepared for col
lege under his father. 


Having received an A.B. degree
 from Maryville College, Tennessee, 
 he continued his legal education at 
the University of Wisconsin, after
 which he practiced law for many 
years as a member of the firm of
 Miller, Tracy and Eldredge of Mar
quette, Michigan. A. E. Miller, '83, 
 with whom Mr. Tracy was associ
ated, is now President of the 11th
 District of the Alumni Association. 


While serving as Assistant Director of the Bureau 
of Exports in Washington during the war, Mr. Tracy
 was sent on a special mission to Mexico. 
 Since the close of the war he has been in New York 
and Chicago, specializing in corporation law, particu
larly corporate financing and reorganizations. He has 
also written a textbook, "Corporate Foreclosures, Re
ceiverships and Reorganizations," besides articles for 
legal magazines. 


The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him in 1921 
by Maryville College.