Jennifer S. Fan, the Therese Maynard Chair in Business Law at LMU Loyola Law School, is an expert on corporate securities law and corporate governance. Her scholarship has been published in the Harvard Business Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, Boston College Law Review, Columbia Business Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, BYU Law Review, and Utah Law Review, among others.
Fan’s recent scholarship, co-authored with Xuan-Thao Nguyen, examines emerging challenges in corporate governance within rapidly evolving technology sectors. Their article, “Novel Corporate Governance Structures,” published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, analyzes the innovative corporate governance models adopted by leading AI startups—such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI—and assesses their long-term viability as these companies compete to develop advanced foundation models. Fan and Nguyen also co-authored “Founder Worship, Effective Altruism, and Corporate Governance” in the Kentucky Law Journal, using Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX as a case study to illustrate how founder mythologie — amplified by the moral narrative of effective altruism — can undermine governance practices. Together, these works underscore Fan’s broader focus on the need for robust governance frameworks in fast-moving industries to safeguard legitimacy, accountability, and sustainable growth.
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. After law school, she worked at global law firms in New York City, the San Francisco/Bay Area, and Seattle. She also served as 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 and 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. Prior to joining Loyola Law, Professor Fan was the D. Wayne and Anne Gittinger Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, faculty director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, and faculty advisor for the Law, Business, and Entrepreneurship track at the University of Washington School of Law. She is an American Bar Foundation Fellow and a recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year Award, an honor bestowed by the student body of the University of Washington School of Law. Her research and policy-oriented work have also been supported by multi‑year grants from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Herbert B. Jones Foundation to advance access to legal resources for under-resourced entrepreneurs. Professor Fan is also the chair-elect for the AALS Section on Business Associations.