Edward Adams

Professor Edward S. Adams is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of accounting, corporate finance, corporate law, entrepreneurship, cannabis law, and commercial law.  Professor Adams served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1997 to 2000. He was honored with the Stanley V. Kinyon Teaching and Counseling Award in 1994 and 1996, and was a co-holder of the Julius E. Davis Chair in Law for 1999-2000.  Following his graduation cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School where he served as Managing Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review, Professor Adams clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and worked in the Chicago and Los Angeles offices of the renowned international law firm of Latham and Watkins, LLP.  

Professor Adams is the author of over forty books or editions of books and dozens of articles on business-related issues which have appeared in such prestigious publications as the University of Chicago Law Review, the California Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the New York University Law Review, the Virginia Law Review and the Vanderbilt Law Review.  As further recognition of Professor Adams’s expertise, Professor Adams has served as a commentator to Bloomberg Law, the BusinessInsider.com, and other prominent entities and has had articles published about him and his work in the New York Times and other leading newspapers.

Professor Adams has written and spoken on various corporate and commercial topics to hundreds of law firms, bar groups and academic conferences, served on numerous private and public company boards of directors, acted as chairperson of the noteholders committee of the largest steel industry bankruptcy reorganization in American history, and served as an expert witness in many prominent matters with respect to varied subjects. 

Like virtually everyone, Professor Adams has faced adversity. As a low-income, first-generation college and law student whose parents both grew up in extreme poverty, Professor Adams overcame significant childhood challenges—including a life-altering automobile accident—with the help and devotion of his loving parents.

With a passion for "giving back" inspired by his family's example, Professor Adams has made substantial contributions to public service. He co-founded a project providing free legal services to community members in New York and was a founding member of a prominent regional initiative offering pro bono legal assistance to families of service members deployed to the Persian Gulf. At the University of Minnesota Law School, he created a program introducing disadvantaged high school students to potential legal career paths. As class representative for his alma mater, he helped raise the single largest annual celebratory gift in school history—over $25 million.

Most recently, Professor Adams has worked to transform injustice into positive change following events in Minnesota. He authored a series of impactful articles and a book illuminating the challenges individuals and businesses face in the current American criminal justice system.