Background

Benjamin Means is a Professor of Law, the John T. Campbell Chair in Business and Professional Ethics, and Director of the Family & Small Business Program at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law. Professor Means focuses his research on corporate governance and family-owned businesses. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Agency, Partnership, LLCs, and Unincorporated Business Associations.

He is the author of The Principles of Family Business Law (Cambridge University Press, 2026) and co-author of Cases and Materials on Business Entities (Aspen Casebook Series, Sixth Edition 2026). His articles have been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Washington University Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the Harvard Environmental Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the Boston College Law Review, the U.C. Irvine Law Review, the William & Mary Law Review, the U.C. Davis Law Review, the Ohio State Law Journal, and the Fordham Law Review among other journals. One of his articles was selected for inclusion in the Junior Faculty Forum sponsored by Harvard, Stanford, and Yale law schools, and four of his articles have been selected for reprinting in the Corporate Practice Commentator. He has been quoted in news media including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Professor Means received his AB cum laude from Dartmouth College and his JD magna cum laude from Michigan Law School, where he served as an articles editor for the Michigan Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Rosemary S. Pooler of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before entering academia, Professor Means practiced law in New York at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Satterlee Stephens LLP.   

Teaching

• Business Associations (LAWS 609)
• Family Business Law (LAWS 603)
• Contracts (LAWS 504)
• Liberty Seminar (LAWS 668)
• Mergers & Acquisitions (LAWS 774)

Books

• The Principles of Family Business Law (Cambridge University Press, 2026)
• Cases and Materials on Business Entities (co-author Eric A. Chiappinelli) (Aspen Casebook Series, 6th ed. forthcoming 2026)

Articles

• Forcing Climate Change Compliance, 48 Harvard Environmental Law Review 437 (2024) (with Susan Kuo)
• Against Contractual Formalism in Shareholder Oppression Law, U.C. Davis L. Rev. (2024) (with Douglas K. Moll)
• Climate Change Compliance, 107 Iowa L. Rev. 2135 (2022) (with Susan Kuo) 
• Solving the "King Lear Problem", 12 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 1245 (2022) 
• A Corporate Law Rationale for Reparations, 62 B.C. L. Rev. 799 (2021) (with Susan Kuo)
• The Value of Insider Control, 60 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 891 (2019)
• The Political Economy of Corporate Exit, 71 Vand. L. Rev. 1293 (2018) (with Susan Kuo)
• Collective Coercion, 57 B.C. L. Rev. 1599 (2016) (with Susan Kuo)
• Wealth Inequality and Family Businesses, 65 Emory L.J. 937 (2016)
• The Contractual Foundation of Family-Business Law, 75 Ohio St. L.J. 675 (2014)
• Nonmarket Values in Family Businesses, 54 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1185 (2013)

About the Family & Small Business Program

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