Lorraine Talbot

Professor Talbot Joined Birmingham Law School in January 2018. She previously held a Chair at the University of York and was an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick.  

Professor Talbot researches in contextual and critical approaches to company law, corporate governance and business organisations; approaches which include issues around political economy, theory, power, gender and history. Her work is particularly concerned with the tension between labour and capital in the company and how the company might become a force for social progress. Her 2013 book Progressive Corporate Governance for the 21st Century (Routledge 2013 and 2014) shows how political choices shape the company and determine whether companies will operate in the interests of investment or in the interests of labour and the wider community. The book draws on historical, comparative, theoretical and legal sources. Her 2014 book, Great Debates in Company Law, in Palgrave’s Great Debates series draws out the vigorous political debates that reside within this subject. She is currently writing a third edition of Critical Company Law (Routledge 2007, 2015) and completing a monograph entitled Extracting Global Values and Corporate Capitalism: How we could make the Company Fit for Social Purpose. Professor Talbot’s work is concerned to make critical academic work both useful and assessable to students. With that goal in mind she will be publishing an edited collection entitled Critical Commercial and Corporate Law in 2019.