Jay Kesten
Jay Kesten
Florida State University
College of Law
Advocacy Center, Room A202E
Phone: 850.644.1596
jkesten@law.fsu.edu
LL.M., Harvard University, 2009
LL.B., University of British Columbia, 2002
B.A., University of British Columbia, 1999
Professor Kesten’s research focuses on both theoretical and empirical aspects of corporate governance and public markets. His recent publications address emerging topics in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, corporate political activity, and the market for Initial Public Offerings. He teaches Corporations, Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities Regulation, and seminars on advanced topics in corporate governance. Professor Kesten was formerly a visiting assistant professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law. Before entering academia, he was a litigator in Boston, where his practice focused primarily on corporate and securities litigation, and clerked at the British Columbia Supreme Court.
Select Recent and Forthcoming Publications
Local Politics and the Going-Public Decision (work-in-progress, with Mityakov and Portnykh)
Presidential Immunity: A Lesson from Corporate Law (work-in-progress)
Corporate Governance in the Shadow of the Culture Wars (work-in-progress)
Of Convergence and Contingency: Some Thoughts on Public Firm Fiduciary Duties, 68 Fla. L. Rev. Forum ___ (2024)
The Law and Economics of the Going-Public Decision, in The Oxford Handbook of IPOs (Douglas Cumming & Sofia Johan eds., Oxford University Press 2019)
The Uncertain Case for Appraisal Arbitrage, 52 Wake Forest L. Rev. 89 (2017)
Shareholder Political Primacy, 10 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 161 (2016)
Political Uncertainty and the Market for IPOs, 41 J. Corp. L. 431 (2015) (with Murat C. Mungan)
Adjudicating Corporate Auctions, 32 Yale J. on Reg. 45 (2015)
A Moral Agency Theory of the Shareholder Bylaw Power, 85 Temp. L. Rev. 485 (2013)
Managerial Entrenchment and Shareholder Wealth Revisited: Theory and Evidence from a Recessionary Market, 2010 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 1609 (2010)
The Story of Francis v. United Jersey Bank: When A Good Story Makes Bad Law, in Corporate Law Stories (J. Mark Ramseyer ed., Foundation Press 2009) (with Reinier Kraakman)