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About Professor Shelby

Cary Martin Shelby

I am currently a professor of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. I joined W&L from DePaul University College of Law, where I taught a variety of business law courses such as Business Organizations, Securities Regulation and a seminar on Investment Funds. I received the DePaul College of Law Excellence in Teaching Award in May 2016 and the DePaul University Excellence in Teaching Award in September 2018.


My research generally encompasses regulatory issues related to hedge funds and other pooled investment vehicles. It has utilized a range of theoretical frameworks to scrutinize the blurred distinctions between public and private investment funds resulting from financial innovation, systemic risk, and retailization. It further examines the extent to which the regulatory apparatus provided under corporate and securities laws, filtered through a Critical Race Theory lens, could better protect against more expansive notions of systemic risk generated by racist practices and policies. I have published articles in Northwestern University Law Review (forthcoming), The California Law Review, The Business Lawyer, Boston College Law Review, among other journals and periodicals. I am currently under contract with Cambridge University Press for my forthcoming book project, Markets for Black Pain: Law and Marginalization as a Commodity.

I received my B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and my J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. I then practiced law in the Investment Funds, Advisers and Derivatives Group with Sidley Austin LLP for close to four years. As an associate in this group, I represented clients in regulatory and corporate matters involving hedge funds, commodity pools and derivatives trading. After leaving Sidley, I completed the William H. Hastie Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Law School, which is a competitive two-year LL.M. program designed to prepare its candidates for a career in law academia.

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