Laura N. Beny is the Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been a faculty member since 2003. A scholar whose work bridges academia and practice, she has taught a wide range of courses at Michigan Law, including Corporate Finance, Enterprise Organization, International Finance, The Public Corporation, Law and Development, and Law and Finance.

In 2018, she developed and launched Africa in the Global Legal System, a groundbreaking course that is one of the first of its kind in US legal education. This innovative course integrates her interdisciplinary research and teaching interests, which span law, economics, finance, international development, and political economy, with a particular focus on Africa. The course prepares students for careers in law, policy, business, and nonprofit sectors that engage with the African continent.

Beny’s research has been published in top-tier academic journals, including the American Economic Review, American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Corporation Law, and Harvard Business Law Review. Her work has been cited in prominent media outlets such as Bloomberg, The Economist, The Age (Australia), and Global Risk Regulator, and has been referenced in congressional testimony. She is the co-editor of Sudan’s Killing Fields: Political Violence and Fragmentation (Red Sea Press, 2014) and has authored numerous opinion pieces on Africa, particularly Sudan and South Sudan, in international media such as Newsweek International, Africa.com, and Al Jazeera. Her scholarship also has been profiled in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and in Harvard Law Today.

In addition to her academic work, Beny has made significant contributions to legal and policy development in Africa. From 2007 to 2008, she served as a legal consultant to the Government of Southern Sudan on private sector development during the critical period leading to its independence in 2011. 

She also has been actively involved in the University of Michigan’s African Studies Center, where she served on the executive committee from 2015 to 2017 and from 2021 to 2022 and as associate director from 2018 to 2021. In this role, she helped organize and lead initiatives such as Michigan’s Africa Week in 2021 and Africa Town Hall in 2020, which highlighted the University’s engagement with Africa and fostered interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Michigan and beyond.

Beny’s professional experience includes practicing law at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, where she advised both corporate and pro bono clients on complex legal matters. She also has served as a legal consultant to the World Bank on issues related to corporate governance and transparency in the private sector and as research assistant to the Project on Shared Capitalism at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her pro bono work includes representing individual investors in NASD arbitration proceedings and advocating for political asylum applicants. 

She is an active member of the New York Bar, to which she was admitted in 2002.

Related Information

Areas of Interest

Education
  • Stanford University, BA, economics, with distinction
  • Harvard University, MA, economics
  • Harvard University, PhD, economics
  • Harvard University, JD

    • Recent Courses

    Featured Scholarship

    "Decolonization as Dialectic Process in Law and Literature"

    Völkerrechtsblog
    MLaw Repository WWW
    • Legal Writing and Research

    Review of South Sudan: A Slow Liberation by Edward Thomas

    The Historian
    MLaw Repository
    • Human Rights

    "A National Adaptation Programme of Action: Ethiopia's Responses to Climate Change"

    World Development Perspectives
    WWW
    • Environmental and Energy Law

    "Introductory Note to United Nations Security Council Resolution on Targeted Sanctions in South Sudan"

    International Legal Materials
    HEIN
    • Human Rights
    See All Scholarship
    Activities
    December 2019
    Participated in the Nobel Symposium at the U-M Center for Complex Systems along with other U-M scholars from various academic departments, University of Michigan.
    December 2018
    Spoke about investment/growth opportunities and legal, economic, and political risks in Africa on the panel, “Opportunities and Challenges for Emerging Markets,” 2018 Emerging Markets Conference, University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
    November 2018
    Ran the U-M African Presidential Scholars (UMAPS) Colloquium, African Studies Center, University of Michigan International Institute.
    November 2018
    Served as a discussant for “Do Legal Remedies Promote Investment? New Evidence from a Natural Experiment in the Investment Treaty Network” (authored by Cree Jones, ‘13), International Law/Law & Development Panel, 2018 Empirical Legal Studies Conference, University of Michigan Law School.
    September 2018
    Presented the article, “Metals or Management? Explaining Africa’s Recent Growth Spurt,” previously published in the American Economic Review, as a mock research presentation to the U-M African Presidential Scholars (UMAPS), African Studies Center, University of Michigan International Institute.
    September 2018
    A previously written article that appeared in the American Economics Review was cited in a Bloomberg article.
    July 2018
    Appointed associate director of the University of Michigan African Studies Center, International Institute.
    July 2017
    Nominated to serve another term as a member of the executive committee of the University of Michigan African Studies Center.
    July 6–12, 2017
    Hosted the 11th Annual Lutie A. Lytle Black Women Law Faculty Workshop and Writing Retreat at the University of Michigan Law School. It involved fundraising from co-sponsoring law schools for participant scholarships and a year of planning and coordination. Keynote speakers included Robert Sellers, U-M vice provost; Michele Coleman Mayes, ‘74, vice president and general counsel of the New York Public Library; and Marcilynn Burke, dean of the University of Oregon School of Law.