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75 Md. L. Rev. 541 (2015-2016)
The Social Enterprise Law Market

handle is hein.journals/mllr75 and id is 553 raw text is: THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE LAW MARKET J. HASKELL MURRAY* ABSTRACT During the last seven years, over thirty states have passed at least one social enterprise statute. These social enterprise statutes allow the formation of a plethora of new entity types, including low-profit limited liability companies, benefit corporations, benefit limited liability companies, public benefit corporations, and social purpose corporations. Social enterprises have attracted increasing academic attention, but virtually nothing has been written on if and how states are competing for these entities. This Article attempts to fill that void, while also providing a history of the social enterprise forms, a comparative analysis, and recommendations for states that wish to engage in jurisdictional competition in the social enterprise law market. TABLE OF CONTENTS A B STRA CT ............................................................................................. 541 IN TRODU CTION ...................................................................................... 542 I. OVERVIEW OF U.S. SOCIAL ENTERPRISE LAW AND LITERATURE .... 543 A. Low-Profit Limited Liability Companies (L3Cs) ............. 543 B. Benefit Corporations and Benefit LLCs ............................... 546 C. Social Purpose Corporations ................................................. 552 D. Public Benefit Corporations ................................................. 553 II. ITERATIONS AND INNOVATIONS IN SOCIAL ENTERPRISE LAW ........ 555 A . Entity Purpose ...................................................................... 555 B. Third-Party Standards and Social Reporting ........................ 556 © 2016 J. Haskell Murray. * J. Haskell Murray is an Assistant Professor of Management and Business Law at Belmont University. The Author thanks, for their comments and conversations about this Article, the attendees of the Association of American Law Schools' Nonprofit Law and Philanthropy Panel on Social Enterprise, Cass Brewer, Joan Heminway, Mohsen Manesh, Alicia Plerhoples, and Dana Brakman Reiser. With permission, this Article draws from and builds on the author's chapter State Laboratories and Social Enterprise Law written for RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON PARTNERSHIPS, LLCS AND ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS (Robert W. Hillman & Mark J. Loewenstein eds., 2015). William Ball provided excellent research assistance. The opinions expressed and any errors made are solely those of the author.

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