Posted on December 25, 2008

Kauffman Foundation Launches Initiative to Support Legal Scholarship That Promotes Innovation, Growth

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has announced the launch of a five-year, $10 million initiative that will support research by leading legal and economic scholars on how best to shape the U.S. legal system in order to promote innovation and growth.

The Law, Innovation, and Growth initiative will award grants totaling $2.8 million over three years to seven top law schools — including Yale, Columbia, and Stanford — to examine the impact of law and regulation on growth; $2.8 million over two years to Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to develop a global network of legal research labs to test innovations that can help businesses overcome the legal, regulatory, and financial obstacles they face; and $2.2 million in Kauffman Legal Research Fellowships to support research and curriculum development at top law schools on topics related to innovation and growth.

The initiative also will fund seminars at leading law schools that address a range of topics related to innovation and growth, as well as the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse, a first-of-its-kind online database that offers comprehensive information about intellectual property disputes within the United States.

"We want our nation's top legal scholars to devote their talents, experience, and energy to furthering our understanding of how the legal system can best foster innovation and growth," said Kauffman Foundation vice president of research and policy Robert E. Litan, "both to aid policy makers and judges and to help educate the next generation of lawyers."