This Friday the University of Chicago Law School’s Business Law Review will convene their 2025 Symposium titled: “Rethinking Going Public: Innovation, Access, and Accountability in Modern Capital Markets.”

The full-day event will explore how start-ups are receiving billions in private markets, remaining private longer, and rejecting the traditional IPO route. Scholars, practitioners, and regulators from around the country will come to campus to discuss the legal, financial, and policy implications of capital markets that favor the private sector and the potential consequences for public investors.

Adriana Robertson, the Donald M. Pritzker Professor of Business Law, will deliver opening remarks to kick-off the day’s discussions—which will be lead by four panels.

The first panel, “The Evolving Capital Markets Landscape: Recent Developments and Governance Trends,” will feature M. Todd Henderson, the Michael J. Marks Professor of Law; Mark A. Leahy (Fenwick & West); and Elizabeth Pollman (University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law), with Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law Alex Abboud as moderator.

The second panel, “Revising the Rulebook: Regulations of Innovation in Capital Markets,” will include Professor from Practice William Birdthistle; Raquel Fox (Skadden); and Ran Ben-Tzur (Fenwick & West), with Robertson as moderator.

The third panel, “SPAC Governance: Managing the Clock,” will bring together Philip G. Berger (University of University of Chicago Booth School of Business); Jill E. Fisch (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School); and Andrew A. Schwartz (University of Colorado Law School), in conversation with Elizabeth Kregor, director of the Law School’s Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship.

The final panel, “The Economic Significance of IPOS: The Key to Competition,” will feature Robert Bartlett (Stanford Law School); Jay R. Ritter (University of Florida Warrington School of Business); Matthew Wansley (Cardozo School of Law), with Clinical Professor Josh Avratin as moderator.

In addition, Steven Neal Kaplan, the Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, will deliver a “distinguished address.” 

The Symposium Keynote Speaker will be Kara M. Stein, board member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Stein was appointed to her role by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021.

All University of Chicago Law School journal symposiums are free and open to the public.