Mr. Dent taught law at New York University, Cardozo, and the New York Law School before joining our faculty in 1990. Earlier he had clerked for Judge Paul R. Hays of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and practiced corporate law in New York with Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates. He teaches Business Associations, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Business Planning and is the faculty supervisor for the Business Organizations Concentration. He is the Associate Director of the Law School's Center for Business Law and Regulation. He has published many articles on corporate and securities law, including “Business Lawyers as Enterprise Architects,” The Business Lawyer (2009); “Academics in Wonderland: The Team Production and Director Primacy Models of Corporate Governance,” Houston Law Review (2008); and “Corporate Governance: Still Broke, No Fix in Sight,” Journal of Corporation Law (2005). He also writes on law and religion, as in “Civil Rights for Whom: Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom,” University of Kentucky Law Journal (2006-07); and “How Does Same-Sex Marriage Threaten You?,” Rutgers Law Review (2007). Mr. Dent serves as a director of the National Association of Scholars and as president of the Ohio Association of Scholars. He co-chairs the Subcommittee on Constitutional Adjudication of the Religious Liberties Practice Group of the Federalist Society. He heads the Law Section of the Association for the Study of Free Institutions. He is chairman of the Ohio State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

I have written extensively on corporate and securities law. In “Business Lawyers an Enterprise Architects” in The Business Lawyer (2009) I presented a much more accurate portrait and analysis of what transactional lawyers do than did prior publications and discussed the implications of my findings for legal education. In “Academics in Wonderland” in the Houston Law Review (2008) and several other articles I have advocated a stronger role for shareholders in corporate governance against those who charge that investors have conflicting interests and would not advance the long-term interests of corporations.

I also write extensively on law and religion. I have defended the right of religious people to invoke their faith when participating in public discourse and electoral politics. In “Civil Rights for Whom?: Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom” in the Kentucky Law Journal (2006-07) I argued for the right of people of faith to express their views on moral issues and to act according to their conscience without being charged with violating antidiscrimination laws. In several articles I have also defended the traditional definition of marriage as an important institution for children.