A graduate of Roanoke College and of UVA Law School in 1958, Ernest Linwood Folk was a known scholar in the fields of corporate and securities law, as well as arts and entertainment law. At UVA he earned both an LL.B. and M.A. and was a member of the editorial board of the Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. He joined the UVA law faculty after teaching at the law schools of the University of North Carolina and the University of South Carolina. He had previously been an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, from 1956-59, as well as a visiting professor at Columbia, Michigan, and Duke law schools. He was a Reporter for the 1967 revision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, a statute governing more than half the nation’s Fortune 500 companies. From 1970 to 1976, he edited the Securities Law Review. As a professor at UVA, he taught such classes as Corporate Finance, Non-Profit Corporations, Business Planning, Law and the Visual Arts, Law and the Performing Arts, and Securities Regulation. He published The Delaware General Corporation Law: A Commentary and Analysis.
Folk, who himself was wheelchair-bound, impacted the community by raising awareness of the issue of handicapped access, serving as Chairman of the University’s Handicapped Concerns Committee. In this role, he succeeded in obtaining from the Virginia General Assembly special appropriations to pay for handicapped access to sidewalks and special handicapped parking spaces throughout campus. When Folk died suddenly in 1989, the Virginia Law Weekly noted, “He will best be remembered by the student body as a friendly professor who made every effort to interact with his students.”
The Law Library's Special Collections is a repository for Folk's professional papers.
Review of the Delaware Corporation Law (Corporation Service, 1968).
The Delaware General Corporation Law: A Commentary and Analysis (Little, Brown, 1972).
Folk on the Delaware General Corporation Law: A Commentary and Analysis (with Rodman Ward, Jr. and Edward P. Welch) (Little, Brown, 2d ed. 1988; 3d ed. 1992).
Some Reflections of a Corporation Law Draftsman, 42 Conn. B.J. 409-435 (1968).
Civil Liabilities under the Federal Securities Acts: The Barchris Case, 55 Va. L. Rev. 1-82, 199-271 (1969); reprinted in 1969 Corp. Couns. Ann. 782-965.
Corporation Law Developments – 1969, 56 Va. L. Rev. 755-825 (1970).
Second Annual Review of Corporation Law Developments, 25 Rec. Ass’n B. City N.Y. 521-530 (1970).
Restructuring the Securities Market – The Martin Report: A Critique, 57 Va. L. Rev. 1315-1375 (1971).
Does State Corporation Law Have a Future?, 8 Ga. St. B.J. 311-321 (1972).
New Developments in Corporation Law, in Third Annual Advanced Business Law Seminar I-1 to I-8 (Virginia State Bar and Virginia Bar Association, 1972).
Conflicts of Interest under State Law, in Third Annual Institute on Securities Regulations 161-186 (Practising Law Institute, 1972).
Recent Developments in Corporation Law, in Fourth Annual Advanced Business Law Seminar I-1 to I-9 (Virginia State Bar and Virginia Bar Association, 1973).
Sequestration in Delaware: A Constitutional Analysis (with Peter F. Moyers), 73 Colum. L. Rev. 749-800 (1973).
State Statutes: Their Role in Prescribing Norms of Responsible Management Conduct, 31 Bus. Law. 1031-1080 (1976).
The Red Book Digest of the New Delaware Corporation Law, 1967 (Amended to Date) (Corporation Service, 1968).
Amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (Effective July 15, 1969) and Technical Amendments Act (Effective January 2, 1968) (Corporation Service, 1969).
Statement, in Investment Company Amendments Act of 1969, at 152-167 (Committee on Banking and Currency, U.S. Senate, Hearing, Apr. 18, 1969).
Amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (Effective July 1, 1970) (Corporation Service, 1970).
2-7 Securities Law Review (editor) (Boardman, 1970-75).
Delaware Corporation Law (Delaware Law Center, 1974).
Developments in Securities Regulation, 1975 (Boardman, 1975).
Tribute to Judge Collins J. Seitz, 70 Va. L. Rev. 1555-1558 (1984).
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