Education
B.A., Cornell University
J.D. , LL.M., Boston University
M.P.A., Harvard University
Background
Eric Gouvin practiced corporate, commercial, and banking law with a large firm in Portland, Maine. While in practice Dean Gouvin worked on matters for business clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small, closely held concerns. He served as Dean of the School of Law from 2013 - 2018.
He has long been involved in transactional law education and the promotion of entrepreneurship. He founded the Small Business Clinic at Western New England and served on the Board of Editors for the Kauffman Foundation’s eLaw website. He was a longtime member of the Board of Advisors for the Scibelli Enterprise Center, and currently serves on the entrepreneurial ecosytem committee of the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts, and on the board of the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative.
His primary area of scholarly interest is corporate and entrepreneurship law. He is a coauthor of the treatise Blumberg on Corporate Groups and numerous law review articles on a wide variety of topics, often with an international or comparative perspective. He has also written several lessons on corporate law for the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) library. Dean Gouvin is an active member of the American Bar Association, where he has chaired the Adjunct Faculty Committee for the Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar and the Business Law Education Committee for the Business Law Section. Dean Gouvin is a prior Chair of the AALS Section on Transactional Law and Skills.
In addition to his service at Western New England, Dean Gouvin has also taught a course in comparative corporate law several times as a Visiting Professor at the Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense in France and at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. In the spring of 2012 he delivered a series of lectures about comparative corporate law in Chongqing, China at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law as a Fulbright Specialist.
Eric Gouvin's Google Scholar Profile
For more information about Eric Gouvin click here.
Download Vitae
Courses Taught
Business Organizations
Contracts
Intro to the Legal Profession
Comparative Corporate Law
Transactional Lawyering Seminar
Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship
Scholarly Works
Books
ABA Section Of Legal Education And Admission To The Bar, Committee On Adjunct Faculty, Best Practices Report On The Use Of Adjunct Faculty (Eric J. Gouvin ed. and contributor, 2011). SSRN Digital Commons
Phillip I. Blumberg, Kurt A. Strasser, Nicholas L. Georgakopoulos & Eric J. Gouvin, Law Of Corporate Groups: Jurisdiction Practice And Procedure (2007). SSRN Digital Commons
Phillip Blumberg, Kurt A. Strasser, Nicholas L. Georgakopoulos, & Eric J. Gouvin, Blumberg On Corporate Groups (2d ed. 2005). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, The Law Of Corporate Groups: Statutory Law - Specific (Aspen Law & Business, annual supps. 2000-2002). SSRN
Book Chapters
Eric J. Gouvin, Of Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs: Toward a Public Policy That Supports New Venture Formation, in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies: The Role of Law 27 (Megan M. Carpenter ed., 2012).
Eric J. Gouvin, The Document Package Exam, in Techniques for Teaching Law 2 299-301 (Gerald F. Hess et. al. eds., 2011). Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, On Death and Magic: Law, Necromancy, and the Great Beyond, in Law And Magic: A Collection of Essays (Christine A. Corcos ed., 2010). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, The Magic of Money and Banking, in The Law and Harry Potter (Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder, eds., 2010). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Bank Mergers in North America: Comparing the Approaches in the United States and Canada, ch. 11, in Bank Mergers: The Global Scenario (Jayshree Bose ed., 2006).
Eric J. Gouvin, Financial Holding Company Liability After Gramm-Leach-Bliley, in Financial Modernization After Gramm-Leach-Bliley 37-63 (Patricia A. McCoy ed., 2002). SSRN Digital Commons
Journal Articles
Eric J. Gouvin, et al., Teaching Communication Skills in Transactional Simulations, 20 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 429 (2019). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, What’s Law Got to Do with It?: An Essay About the Balance of Power in Corporate Governance Between Officers, Directors, and Shareholders, 50 New Eng. L. Rev. On Remand Online Symposium 92 (2016). SSRN
Eric J. Gouvin, Foreword: Establishing a Firm Foundation for the Small Law Practice, 37 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 129 (2015). SSRN Digital Commons
Dana Malkus, Scott Stevenson, Eric J. Gouvin & Usha Rodrigues, The Lawyer's Toolbox: Teaching Students about Risk Allocation, 14 Transactions 319 (2013). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Wilkes v. Springside Nursing Home, Inc.: The Backstory, 33 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 269 (2011). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Teaching Business Lawyering in Law Schools: A Candid Assessment of the Challenges and Some Suggestions for Moving Ahead, 78 UMKC L. Rev. 429 (2009). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Are There Any Checks and Balances on the Government's Power to Check Our Balances? The Fate of Financial Privacy in the War on Terror, 14 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 517 (2005). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Bank Mergers in North America: Comparing the Approaches in the United States and Canada, 18 Transnat'l Law. 245 (2005). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Learning Business Law by Doing It: Real Transactions in Law School Clinics, Bus. L. Today, Sept.-Oct. 2004, at 53. SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Radical Tax Reform, Municipal Finance, and the Conservative Agenda, 56 Rutg. L. Rev. 409 (2004). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Bringing Out the Big Guns: The USA PATRIOT Act, Money Laundering, and the War on Terrorism, 55 Baylor L. Rev. 955 (2003). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, The Political Economy of Canada's "Widely Held" Rule for Large Banks, 32 Law & Pol'y Int'l Bus. 391 (2001). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Rural Low-Income Housing and Massachusetts Chapter 40B: A Perspective from the Zoning Board of Appeals, 23 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 3 (2001). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Cross-Border Bank Branching Under the NAFTA: Public Choice and the Law of Corporate Groups, 13 Conn. J. Int'l L. 257 (1999). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Of Hungry Wolves and Horizontal Conflicts: Rethinking the Justifications for Bank Holding Company Liability, 1999 U. Ill. L. Rev. 949 (1999). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Banking in North America: The Triumph of Public Choice Over Public Policy, 32 Cornell Int'l L.J. 1 (1998). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Shareholder Enforced Market Discipline: How Much is Too Much?, 16 Ann. Rev. Banking L. 311 (1997). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Resolving the Subsidiary Director's Dilemma, 47 Hastings L.J. 287 (1996). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, A Square Peg in a Vicious Circle: Stephen Breyer's Optimistic Prescription for the Regulatory Mess, 32 Harv. J. On Legis. 473 (1995). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Truth in Savings and the Failure of Legislative Methodology, 62 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1281 (1994). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Note, Drunk Driving and the Alcoholic Offender: A New Approach to an Old Problem, 12 Am. J.L. & Med. (1987).
Conference Proceedings
Connecticut Bar Association Task Force On The Future Of Legal Education And Standards Of Admission (Eric J. Gouvin, contributor, 2014).
Eric J. Gouvin, Mark Fagan, Tamar Frankel, & Kathy Z. Heller, Upper-Level Courses: Three Exemplars, 12 Transactions 377 (2011). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Robert Statchen, Anthony J. Luppino, & William A. Kell, Interdisciplinary Transactional Courses, 12 Transactions 101 (2011). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Foreword: Entrepreneurship in a Flat, Green, Cash-Strapped World, 31 W. New England L. Rev. 581 (2009). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Symposium: Current Issues in Community Economic Development: Foreword: Entrepreneurship, Race, and the Current Environment for Community Economic Development, 30 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 1 (2007). SSRN Digital Commons
Eric J. Gouvin, Foreword: Law, Business, and Economic Development - Current Issues and Age-Old Battles, 29 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 1 (2006). SSRN Digital Commons
Shorter Writings
Eric Gouvin, Psychically Impacted Properties and Mandatory Disclosures, Af-Am Point of View, June 1, 2023, at 23.
Eric J. Gouvin, Massachusetts Non-Compete Law Levels the Playing Field, Af-Am Point of View, June 1, 2021, at 23.
Eric J. Gouvin, Keeping Secrets Could be the Key to Business Success, Af-Am Point of View, April 1, 2020, at 23.
Eric J. Gouvin, Congress Decides Not to Kill the “Death Tax,” Af-Am Point of View, Feb. 1, 2018, at 23.
