Jennifer S. Fan

  • Affiliate Professor
  • Affiliate Professor of Law

Contact

Phone: (206) 685-2636
Email: jsfan@uw.edu

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Education

A.B. 1995, with distinction, Stanford University J.D. 1998, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Areas of Expertise

Business and Corporate Law — Contracts — Corporate Governance — Entrepreneurial Law — Law and Technology — Nonprofits — Technology Transfer — Venture Capital

Recent Courses

Course Number Course Name
Entrepreneurial Law Clinic

Selected Publications

  • Jennifer S. Fan, Corporations and Abortion Rights in a Post-Dobbs World, 57 UC Davis L. Rev. 819-898 (2023).

See the full list under the Publications tab below.

Professor Jennifer S. Fan joined the ºìÌÒÊÓƵ in 2010. Professor Fan is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, faculty director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic and faculty advisor for the Law, Business, and Entrepreneurship track. In addition to the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, she teaches business organizations. Professor Fan is the 2019 recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year Award given by the student body.

Professor Fan earned her A.B. in Political Science, with distinction, from Stanford University. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a senior associate in the corporate securities group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Professor Fan was also the inaugural director of the Pro Bono Program of the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School. Previously, she served as the Vice President and Director of Legal Affairs of the Asian Pacific Fund, a community foundation serving the Asian American community in the Bay Area.

Professor Fan's research explores questions of corporate law in the context of entrepreneurship and innovation, with a focus on corporate governance. She is admitted to practice in California, New York and Washington.

Peer Reviewed Journals & Law Reviews

  • Jennifer S. Fan, Corporations and Abortion Rights in a Post-Dobbs World, 57 UC Davis L. Rev. 819-898 (2023).

Professional Publications

  • Speaker, "Women in Startups," Cornell Law School (October 1, 2023)
  • Panelist, "How to Become a Law Professor: Perspectives from AAPI/MENA Women Law Professors," AAPI/MENA Women in the Legal Academy Summer Zoom Session (Virtual), (June 29, 2023)
  • Speaker, "Corporations and Abortion Rights in a Post-Dobbs World," Western People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference with the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty, LMU Loyola Law School (June 27, 2023)
  • Speaker, "Woke Capital Revisited," Business Law Section Meeting, American Bar Association (April 29, 2023)
  • Speaker, "Venture Capital and Term Sheets," UCLA School of Law (April 20, 2023)
  • Speaker, "Company Formation," CoMotion, University of Washington (April 11, 2023)
  • Speaker, "Startup Biases," Startups and Venture Capitalists Class, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (February 15, 2023)
  • Panelist, "Overview of USPTO Pro Bono Program," with Will Covey, Dahlia George, Homer Hsu, and Tom Wong, Ethical Duties and Promoting Inventor Diversity for Patent Practitioners, Washington State Patent Law Association (January 18, 2023)
  • Panelist, "The Great Corporate Awokening: Confronting Litigation Risk and Political Fallout For Exercising Social Leadership," Plenary Panel, NAPABA Convention (November 4, 2022)
  • Panelist, "UW Converge Special Session: Innovation for Impact," UW Converge, University of Washington (October 14, 2022)
  • Speaker, "Startup Biases," UC Hastings College of Law (October 4, 2022)
  • Speaker, Andrew K. Jennings Business Scholarship Podcast (October 3, 2022)
  • Speaker, USPTO Patent Pro Bono Quarterly Meeting (September 21, 2022)
  • Speaker, "Deciding to Enter Administration," Second Annual Workshop for AAPI Women in the Legal Academy, UC Davis School of Law (September 17, 2022)
  • Speaker, "Innovating Inclusion," Independent Director Initiative, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (August 16, 2022)
  • Jun 28, 2023 | Source: FinReg Blog

    "My suggestions on corporate inclusivity in leadership would take time and commitment to implement. While the levers of corporate purpose and publicness have their roles to play, they are limited in advancing corporate inclusivity. Instead, a broader and more holistic approach must be taken to achieve diversity in leadership that reflects our society."

  • Jun 22, 2023 | Source: Oxford Business Law Blog

    "Startup Biases is a project that grew out of a prior paper, The Landscape of Startup Corporate Governance in the Founder-Friendly Era, which employed survey and interview methods to understand the current state of startup corporate governance from the perspective of experienced lawyers in venture capital financings."

  • Feb 09, 2023 | Source: Jakarta Post

    Professor Jennifer Fan's work is cited.

  • Aug 23, 2022 | Source: Seattle Met

    The Network has helped participants patent everything from a paint roller to a surgical instrument. But Fan says getting more inventors in the door is still the biggest barrier. “I’m always surprised that people don’t know that we’re a resource.” It certainly doesn’t take 38 minutes to find them.

  • Jul 31, 2022 | Source: Seattle Times

    Bothell-based biotech company Seagen was flying high this spring. The drug developer reported strong first-quarter results, and shareholders seemed pleased. During an April 28 earnings call, CEO Clay Siegall effused about the company while answering investors’ questions. A few weeks later, on May 16, Siegall announced his resignation from the company he led for 24 years. Jennifer Fan, associate professor of law at the UW, is referenced.

  • Jul 11, 2022 | Source: The FinReg Blog (Duke)

    "Ultimately, my empirical analysis reveals that a number of factors impact the extent to which startup corporate governance measures are implemented and prioritized, including the power dynamics among the board members; the emergence of a founder-centric model after the Great Recession; startups staying private longer; the pervasiveness of the growth-at-all-costs mantra; and the economic climate."

  • Jan 17, 2022 | Source: Bloomberg

    Jennifer Fan's paper, Regulating Unicorns: Disclosure and the New Private Economy, is cited.

  • Oct 12, 2021 | Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

    Remarks at The SEC Speaks in 2021. Professor Fan's scholarship is cited in footnote 22: "For a thoughtful review of the information generally available to investors in private markets, see Jennifer S. Fan, Regulating Unicorns: Disclosure and the New Private Economy, 57 B.C. L. Rev. 583 (2016)."

  • Aug 29, 2021 | Source: Tech Crunch

    “Startups have a seemingly intractable problem: a lack of diversity. Despite research showing that diverse founding teams have a higher rate of return than white founding teams, one characteristic of startups remains relatively unchanged: the dearth of BIPOC and women founders, investors, board members, and counsel in the venture capital ecosystem,” writes Jennifer Fan, UW assistant professor of law.

  • Jul 12, 2021 | Source: NW News Network

    The project offers clients access to a list of COVID-19 resources, a series of trainings on negotiation and one-on-one pro bono legal consultations. Demand for the offerings has been high, says Jennifer Fan, a UW law professor who is co-leading the project.

  • May 21, 2021 | Source: Puget Sound Business Journal

    Growth presents other challenges in the startup world. Jennifer Fan, professor at the ºìÌÒÊÓƵ and the director of the school’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, said companies need strong guidance during late-stage growth.

    “As private companies stay private longer, in a way their outsized growth is really having an impact. You have to think about other issues related to your employees and other stakeholders,” Fan said. “It just becomes more complicated the more people you have in the mix.”

  • May 05, 2021 | Source: The Daily

    Assistant law professor Jennifer Fan and management professor Elizabeth Umphress secured a Population Health Initiative grant to support minority-owned small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020.

  • May 04, 2021 | Source: KIRO-7

    “I don’t have all the facts in this case, but it does not appear that what the company did was improper,” said Jennifer S. Fan, a small business attorney and director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic at the University of Washington. “It does raise questions about the equity of how the funds were distributed though,” she added, and “points to larger problems” with the program.

  • Clinic participants, clients share ELC and Network experiences (Prof. Jennifer Fan mentioned)
    Apr 16, 2021 | Source: UW School of Law

    As one of ºìÌÒÊÓƵ’s 11 clinics, the ELC pairs law and business students with pro bono attorneys and business advisors. The clinic is directed by ºìÌÒÊÓƵ Professor Jennifer Fan.

  • Apr 13, 2021 | Source: UW Population Health

    The project, “Helping Minority-Owned Small Businesses Survive and Thrive Post-COVID-19,” was launched with a Population Health Initiative COVID-19 economic recovery research grant in June 2020. It is a collaboration between Jennifer Fan, assistant professor at the UW School of Law, and Elizabeth Umphress, professor and Evert McCabe Endowed Fellow at the UW Foster School of Business.

  • Mar 19, 2021 | Source: UW News

    Professor Jennifer Fan is quoted on a research project that helps BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women-owned businesses survive and thrive. (Dashboard > Economic Recovery > Business Post-COVID)

  • Sep 16, 2020 | Source: Penn Law

    “I was interested in combining my interest in law, entrepreneurship, and innovation in a meaningful way,” she said. Fan’s recent research has focused on corporations and social justice.

  • Jul 26, 2020 | Source: The Wire (China)

    How long can the league maintain its juggling act of embracing progressive causes in the U.S. while turning a blind eye in China?