Cheryl L. Wade

Harold F. McNiece Professor of Law
J.D. Hofstra University School of LawMaster's degree, St. John's University

Cheryl L. Wade is the "Dean Harold F. McNiece" Professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law. She teaches Issues of Race, Gender and Law, Business Organizations, Corporate Governance and Accountability, and Race and Business.  Her book, "Predatory Lending and The Destruction of the African American Dream” was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2020 and was coauthored with Dr. Janis Sarra, Professor of Law, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia. Professor Wade is a member of the American Law Institute, a national organization of prominent judges, lawyers and academics who work to clarify, modernize and reform the law.

Professor Wade has written book chapters and law review articles on securities, education law and the intersection of race and business.  She has been invited to present at and write for many symposia including articles published by Boston University Law Review, Tulane Law Review, The Maryland Law Review, The Washington & Lee Law Review, and The Iowa Journal of Gender, Race & Justice.  Her articles have been cited in several leading law reviews. One of her articles on education law, When Judges Are Gatekeepers:  Democracy, Morality, Status and Empathy in Duty Decisions (Help From Ordinary Citizens) was listed in The National Law Journal's Worth Reading Column. Another article, Corporate Governance as Corporate Social Responsibility: Empathy and Race Discrimination, was excerpted in a text entitled “Corporate Governance: Law, Theory and Policy.  Her article, Transforming Discriminatory Corporate Cultures:  This is Not Just Women’s Work was listed on the Social Science Research Network’s Top Ten Download List for Diversity Studies.

Professor Wade has been invited to present at many university conferences and workshops on issues of corporate and civil rights law including the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Theory Workshop, the Theory and Practice of Business Decision Making At Boston College School of Law, Boston University’s conference on “The Role of Fiduciary Law and Trust in the Twenty-First Century” and the Western New England School of Law Clason Speaker Series.  Professor Wade was chosen among several applicants to participate in the "Corporate Citizens in Corporate Cultures: Restructuring and Reform" workshop sponsored by the Feminism and Legal Theory Project at Cornell Law School. She delivered the keynote address at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law Symposium on Shareholder Activism.

Professor Wade is a frequent speaker and panelist at conferences organized by the Society of American Law Teachers, The American Association of Law Schools, The National Bar Association, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, The Law and Society Association, and The Association of University Women.  She was invited to appear on the opening plenary session for the 2009 American Association of Law Schools Midyear Conference on Business Associations.  In 2008, her paper was selected to be presented at the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Securities Regulation.  The paper was presented at the AALS Annual Meeting and published with the other panelists’ papers in the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate and Financial Regulation. Professor Wade has appeared on radio and cable television programs discussing issues relating to corporate and civil rights.

Professor Wade organized a symposium, “People of Color, Women and the Public Corporation: Conference on Racial and Gender Equity in the Business Setting”, sponsored by St. John’s University School of Law.  This symposium brought together leading scholars in the areas of corporate governance, critical race theory, employment discrimination and feminist legal theory.  The papers from this symposium were published in the St. John’s Law Review.   Professor Wade is a regular contributor to a blog on issues about social justice and corporate governance at http://corporatejusticeblog.blogspot.com/

Professor Wade was a Visiting Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law in the fall, 2003.  In 2001, she taught Law and Race in Sydney, Australia at the University of New South Wales.

Professor Wade has received two teaching awards from St. John’s University School of Law’s Deans.  Prior to joining the faculty at St. John's Law School, Professor Wade served on the faculty at Hofstra Law School. While at Hofstra, Professor Wade was chosen to serve as an associate for The Merrill Lynch Center for the Study of International Financial Services and Markets.  Professor Wade received the Outstanding Faculty Member and Outstanding Alumna Award from The Hofstra Black Law Students Association in 1996, and received faculty recognition awards from the group in 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.  Before joining the Hofstra faculty, Professor Wade was an associate in the corporate department of the New York City law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. For several years, Professor Wade served on the Board of Directors of the Women's Action Alliance, a not-for-profit corporation devoted to the study and analysis of issues related to the sociological development and empowerment of women and girls. She served as the chair of the Task Force on Diversity in Law Faculty Hiring, which was part of the Committee on Law Student Perspectives of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York.  Professor Wade served on the 2009 Scholarly Papers Review Committee of the American Association of Law Schools.

Before attending law school, Professor Wade was a teacher of Spanish and bilingual education for the Board of Education of the City of New York. She received a Masters' degree in Spanish from St. John's University where she was installed in Sigma Delta Pi, an honor society for the study of foreign languages.

Professor Wade was awarded a Juris Doctorate with distinction from the Hofstra University School of Law where she was a member of the Law Review. She graduated in the top 2% of her law school class. While a student at Hofstra Law School, Professor Wade received the Law School's Citation of Excellence for Corporation Law Courses and the New York State Trial Lawyers Association's Thurgood Marshall Award.

Corporate Compliance That Advances Racial Diversity and Justice and Why Business Deregulation Does Not Matter, 49 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 3 (2018)

Effective Compliance with Antidiscrimination Law:  Corporate Personhood, Purpose and Social Responsibility, 74 Washington and Lee Law Review 2 (2017)

Corporate Lawyers and Diversity Discourse, IILP Review 2017 The State of Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession (2017)

Toward A Critical Corporate Law Pedagogy and Scholarship, 92 Washington University L. Rev. 397 (2014) (Coauthored with Andre Douglas Pond Cummings & Steven A. Ramirez).

Organizational Responsibility for Workplace Racial and Sexual Harassment:  The Stories of One Company’s Workers, 43 Hofstra L. Rev. 229 (2014)(invitation for special issue).

Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards:  How Racial Politics Impedes Progress in the United States, 26 Pace University School of Law International L. Rev. 23 (2014)(symposium issue).

Fairness, Narrative, Empathy, and the U.S. Racial Wealth Gap, in An Exploration of fairness:  interdisciplinary inquiries in law, science and the humanities (2013)(book chapter).

How Predatory Mortgage Lending Changed African American Communities and Families, 35 Hamline L. Rev. 437 (2012)(symposium issue).

Teaching Gender as a Core Value in Business Organizations Class, 36 Oklahoma City University L. Rev. 545 (2011) (symposium issue).

Fiduciary Duty and the Public Interest, 91 Boston University L. Rev. 1191 (2011)(symposium issue)

African-American Entrepreneurs:  Integration, Education, and Exclusion, 32 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 483 (2010) (symposium issue).

Workplace Racial Discrimination and the Professionals at the Center of Corporate Hierarchies in Law & Economics:  Toward Social Justice (2009) (Book Chapter).

Subprime Mortgages and Corporate Governance on Wall Street:  Monitoring Compliance with the U.S. Fair Housing Act, Annual Review of Insolvency Law (2009) (Book Chapter).

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Ethical Corporate Climates:  What the Media Reports; What the General Public Knows, 2 Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law 421 (2008)(symposium issue).

Sarbanes-Oxley Five Years Later:  Will Criticism of SOX Undermine Its Benefits?,39 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 595 (2008) (symposium issue).

Transforming Discriminatory Corporate Cultures: This Is Not Just Women's Work,65 Maryland L. Rev. 346 (2006) (symposium issue).

What Independent Directors Should Expect From Inside Directors: Smith v. Van Gorkom as a Guide to Intra-Firm Governance, 45 Washburn Law Journal 367 (2006) (symposium issue).

Discrimination and The Professionals at the Center of Corporate Hierarchies, (2007) (for "We Are An Equal Opportunity Employer”: Diversity Doublespeak, 61 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1541 (2005).

Introduction To Symposium On People Of Color, Women, and the Public Corporation: The Sophistication of Discrimination, 79 St. John’s L. Rev. 887 (2005).

Attempting To Discuss Race in Business and Corporate Law Courses and Seminars, 77 St. John’s Law Review 901 (2003).

Corporate Governance Failures and the Managerial Duty of Care, 76 St. Johns’s Law Review, (2002).

The Impact of U.S. Corporate Policy on Women and People of Color, The Iowa Journal of Gender Race & Justice, (2003).

Commentary: Corporate Governance in Japan, Germany and Canada: What Can the U.S. Learn from Other Countries?, Law & Policy, (2002).

Racial Discrimination and the Relationship Between the Directorial Duty of Care and Corporate Disclosure, 63 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 389 (2002).

Corporate Governance as Corporate Social Responsibility: Empathy and Race Discrimination, Tulane Law Review (2002).

Comparisons Between Enron and Other Types of Corporate Misconduct: Compliance with Law and Ethical Decision Making as the Best Form of Public Relations, 1 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 97 (2002).

The Interplay Between Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance: Shareholder Activism, the Shareholder Proposal Rule and Corporate Compliance with Law, Book Chapter
 
For-Profit Corporations That Perform Public Functions: Politics, Profit and Poverty,  51 Rutgers Law Review 323 (1999).

Review of  Herbert Grossman, Achieving Educational Equality (Charles C. Thomas,  Publisher, 1998), The Journal of Negro Education (1999)

Shareholder Activism and Disclosure, guest writer for Securities Regulatory Update
(January, 1999)

Lessons From a Prophet on Vocational Identity: Profit or Philanthropy?, 50 Alabama Law Review 115 (1998)

Lessons From Texaco for Corporate Executives, 1 Corporate Finance Review 29, No.5 (1997)

Securities Offerings that Violate the SEC's Registration Requirements, 1 Corporate  Finance Review 41, No. 1 (1996)

When Judges Are Gatekeepers: Democracy, Morality, Status, and Empathy in Duty Decisions (Help From Ordinary citizens), 80 Marquette Law Review 1 (1996)

Educators Who Drive With No Hands: The Application of Analytical Concepts of Corporate Law in Certain Cases of Educational Malpractice, 32 San Diego Law Review 437 (1995)

The Integration of Securities Offerings: A Proposed Formula that Fosters the Policies of Securities Regulation, 25 Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal 199 (1994).