George S. Georgiev, most recently of Emory University, had always thought of Miami mostly as a place of sun and sand. When he first visited in 2017 for a conference, however, the business law scholar quickly saw that it was not at all like he had imagined. Eight years on, he is thrilled to be moving to Miami to join the University of Miami School of Law.
"The University of Miami is a world-class university with a distinguished faculty and terrific students. And the School of Law's enviable academic tradition in business law, combined with Miami's stature as a future-focused commercial hub, offers limitless opportunities for someone with my research interests," Georgiev said in an interview.
"As a city, Miami has many of the best things from the very best places I've lived in, including Los Angeles, New York, and London, as well as its own unique cultural vibrancy and cosmopolitan spirit," he added. "And of course, it's beautiful."
The road to the U.S. and the Legal Academy
This isn't the first time Georgiev's preconceptions didn't quite mirror reality. Growing up in Bulgaria in the 1980s and early 1990s, his idea of the United States was all big cities/big lights. He won a chance to be an exchange student, one of 20 picked from over a thousand English language students in his home country, only to find out that he’d be spending the year not in Boston or Philadelphia but in Pleasanton, Texas, population under 7,000.
The 16-year-old still found the experience enriching and worthwhile. "Over time, it has really helped me understand the United States much better than if I had only lived in one of those big cities," he said.
Georgiev would return to the U.S. again and again for college at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, followed by law school at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, before career moves to New York, London, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
Following law school, Georgiev worked for close to six years as a corporate lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Clifford Chance LLP, where he gathered extensive practice experience in the areas of securities law, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity. His time in practice contributed in part to his academic research on the rise and evolution of private capital markets, which has been of interest to academics, practitioners, and policymakers. In recognition of his expertise, he was recently invited to join the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advisory Committee, advising the SEC chair and commissioners on regulatory priorities and market integrity initiatives.
An exciting new chapter
Georgiev comes to UM after nine years at Emory, where he taught various business law courses and received the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education. Previously, he was a visiting assistant professor at the UCLA School of Law.
In addition to his research on private markets, Georgiev’s scholarship examines cutting-edge questions about the design and performance of the SEC's regulatory regime and the development of systems for sustainability accounting and disclosure. In this area, Georgiev was the first legal scholar to identify and analyze, in a 2021 article, the "human capital management movement" in U.S. corporate law (a set of new initiatives focused on disclosure and board-level oversight of matters pertaining to the workforce). In 2022, he co-authored an analysis of the SEC's rulemaking authority on climate-related disclosure, which was joined by many of the country's leading scholars of corporate and securities law and submitted as a comment letter to the SEC. He subsequently testified about these matters at two congressional hearings—before the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Climate Change Taskforce.
He is eager to share his expertise with—and learn from—the broader UM community. "I particularly look forward to the opportunity to meet and engage with Miami Law alumni working in corporate law and finance and related areas over the coming months and years," said Georgiev.
Georgiev will begin on June 1 and will be teaching corporate governance and business associations in the 2025-2026 academic year.
"We are excited to welcome George to our faculty, as his profound expertise in business law will greatly enrich our academic community," said Patricia Sánchez Abril, interim dean. "His commitment to research and teaching aligns perfectly with our mission to prepare students for impactful careers in law."
Read more about Miami Law’s Business Law area of study.
Read more about Miami Law’s faculty.
