Areas of Specialization
Corporate Law; Securities Law; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Cryptocurrencies
Teaching Interests
Corporate and securities law and their application to entrepreneurial activity.
Representative Professional Activities and Achievements
Darian Ibrahim writes extensively on law & entrepreneurship, venture capital, startups, and cryptocurrencies. His articles on corporate and securities law have been selected as among the best of the year for reprinting in the Securities Law Review and Corporate Practice Commentator. His work regularly appears in leading law reviews including the Cornell Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Hastings Law Journal. Professor Ibrahim teaches business associations, securities regulation, contracts and a seminar on law & entrepreneurship. He was voted the 1L Professor of the Year in 2020 and is a Fellow in the Law School’s Center for Law and Markets.
Prior to joining the William & Mary faculty, Professor Ibrahim was an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona College of Law, where he was voted Teacher of the Year in 2007, and an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Professor Ibrahim earned a J.D. magna cum laude from Cornell Law School and a B.S. magna cum laude in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University. At Cornell, he was Articles Editor of the Cornell Law Review, Order of the Coif, and a recipient of the Fredric H. Weisberg Prize for Constitutional Law. He was a summer associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and an associate at Troutman Sanders in Atlanta, where he represented clients in mergers & acquisitions and the private placement of securities. He also clerked for Chief Justice Norman S. Fletcher of the Georgia Supreme Court.
Scholarly Publications
Articles and Book Chapters
- A Tokenized Future: Regulatory Lessons from Crowdfunding and Standard Form Contracts, 74 Hastings L. J. 45 (2022). SSRN.
- Corporate Venture Capital, 24 U. Penn. J. Bus. L. 209 (2021). Online.
- Underwriting Crowdfunding, 25 Stan. J.L. Bus. & Fin. 289 (2020). SSRN.
- Public or Private Venture Capital?, 94 Wash. L. Rev. 1137 (2019) (reprinted in 2020 Securities Law Review § 3.1). SSRN.
- Crowdfunding Signals, 53 GA. L. Rev. 197 (2019). SSRN.
- Crowdfunding Without the Crowd, 95 N.C. L. Rev. 101 (2017). Online.
- Intrapreneurship, 73 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1741 (2016). SSRN.
- Delaware Law as Lingua Franca: Theory and Evidence, 57 J. L. & Econ. 865 (2015) (with Brian Broughman & Jesse Fried). SSRN.
- Equity Crowdfunding: A Market for Lemons?, 100 Minn. L. Rev. 561 (2015). SSRN.
- Delaware's Familiarity, 52 San Diego L. Rev. 271 (2015) (with Brian Broughman). SSRN.
- Law and Entrepreneurial Opportunities, 98 Cornell L. Rev. 1533 (2013) (with D. Gordon Smith) (symposium article). SSRN.
- Should Angel-Backed Start-ups Reject Venture Capital?, 2 Mich. J. Private Equity & Venture Cap. L. 251 (2013). SSRN.
- How Do Start-ups Obtain Their Legal Services?, 2012 Wisc. L. Rev. 333 (2012) (symposium article).
- The New Exit in Venture Capital, 65 Vand. L. Rev. 1 (2012) (lead article). SSRN.
- Debt as Venture Capital, 2010 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1169 (2010), reprinted in 53 Corporate Practice Commentator 175 (2011). SSRN.
- Financing the Next Silicon Valley, 87 Wash. U. L. Rev. 717 (2010), reprinted in 2011 Securities L. Rev. Sec. 3.2. SSRN.
- Entrepreneurs on Horseback: Reflections on the Organization of Law, 50 Ariz. L. Rev. 71 (2008) (with D. Gordon Smith) (Invited Contribution for 50th Anniversary Issue).
- Individual or Collective Liability for Corporate Directors?, 93 Iowa L. Rev. 929 (2008). SSRN.
- The (Not So) Puzzling Behavior of Angel Investors, 61 Vand L. Rev. 1405 (2008), reprinted in 51 Corporate Practice Commentator 121 (2009). SSRN.