About

John C. Coates is the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, where he also serves as Deputy Dean and Research Director of the Center on the Legal Profession. His professional background includes serving as General Counsel and Acting Director for the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Prior to his tenure at Harvard, he was a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, specializing in financial institutions and mergers and acquisitions. Professor Coates teaches courses related to corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, finance, and related topics at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. His research and publications focus on financial regulation, corporate law, and the legal aspects of financial institutions, with notable works including analyses of financial regulation, the rule of law, and the influence of financial institutions on the economy.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Art
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• History
• Law and economics
• Literature
• Theology
• Law

Selected publications

• Mergers, Acquisitions, and Restructuring Types, Regulation, and Patterns of Practice

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2025-04-22 · 9 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This chapter examines the regulation of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and restructuring within corporate law and governance, focusing on their role in improving corporate and societal outcomes. It defines M&A transactions, emphasizing their complexity and significance, and explores how corporate decision-makers navigate ownership changes. The regulation of M&A aims to allocate authority, reduce transaction costs, resolve conflicts of interest, and protect dispersed shareholders while balancing facilitation and restriction. It outlines various regulatory modes, including disclosure requirements, fiduciary duties, fairness standards, and structural limitations, which shape practices across jurisdictions based on market structures and legal traditions. Finally, the chapter highlights how corporations adapt strategies to navigate or avoid M&A laws, reflecting jurisdictional differences and structural market variations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Eco-spirituality: its emergence and potential

  Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work Social Thought · 2025-08-19

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Mental Health: Detention Under the Mental Health Act 1983 – England and Wales

  Encyclopedia of Forensic and Legal Medicine · 2024-06-22

  book-chapterSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Testimony of Professor John C. Coates IV, John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics, Harvard Law School, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United, States Senate, on 'Considering the Index Fund Voting Process'

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• SPAC Law and Myths

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2022 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Law
  PublisherDOI

• Kipling the Trickster

  2021

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Art
  • History
  • Literature
  PublisherDOI

• Haggard’s Use of the Phoenician Analogy with Britain

  Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens · 2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Art
  • Philosophy

  Durant la période victorienne et édouardienne, plusieurs auteurs ont fait part de leurs appréhensions concernant l’état de l’empire britannique et les dangers auxquels il faisait face en comparant la Grande-Bretagne avec la cité phénicienne de Tyre et la plus grande de ses colonies, Carthage. Cet article compare la façon dont Rider Haggard utilise cette analogie dans son roman Elissa or the Doom of Zimbabwe à celle d’autres écrivains qui ont également comparé la Grande-Bretagne et les Phéniciens. Haggard apparaît comme plus profond, plus ambitieux et sophistiqué dans son usage de l’analogie phénicienne que d’autres auteurs.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction to the Second Issue on Spirituality

  Critical Social Work · 2019-04-11

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This dedicated issue recognizes the growing interest in spirituality among academics, practitioners and students and we welcome the role that Critical Social Work has taken in giving recognition to this significant area of research and practice. This issue contains papers arising primarily from the Fourth Annual Canadian Conference on Spirituality and Social Work held at King’s University College, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, May 26-28, 2005.

  PublisherDOI

• How green is social work? Towards an ecocentric turn in social work

  2019-06-25 · 8 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Growing worldwide concern for climate change and environmental decline has spawned much scholarship in social work, where attention to ecological approaches has increased due to global awareness of these issues and their anticipated catastrophic consequences. The wealth of scholarly thought provides the opportunity for a deep review of social work’s traditional theoretical foundations. Social work emerged in modern society to deal with the families and individuals who suffered the ill effects of industrialization, urbanization and war. As distinct social work scholarship evolved, various ways of conceptualizing social work developed, such as the functional and diagnostic schools, and different approaches emerged – psychoanalytic, psychosocial and problem solving. The integrated ecosystems approach arose primarily from attempts to overcome the specialized methods approach to social work and the situation wherein casework, group work and community work were each developing their own theory and practice, giving social work a fragmented appearance.

  PublisherDOI

• Shing-Tung Yau and the rebirth of Chinese number theory

  Notices of the International Consortium of Chinese Mathematicians · 2019-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jean-Louis Colliot-Thélène

  25 shared

• B. J. Birch

  University of Cambridge

  25 shared

• Alexei N. Skorobogatov

  25 shared

• Lucian A. Bebchuk

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  22 shared

• Guhan Subramanian

  15 shared

• Mel Gray

  University of Newcastle Australia

  12 shared

• Tiani Hetherington

  9 shared

• Reinier Kraakman

  8 shared