The 1997 Allen Chair Symposium centered discussion on the corporate law issues that arose in the midst of a changing United States on the edge of the twenty-first century: “In the Age of Informatics, of instantaneous global communication and increasingly competitive global markets, moving forward slowly has become tantamount to falling behind. There is a small window of opportunity for American academicians, practitioners, politicians and strategists to develop and put into place yet another corporate/business structure that will propel our competitive edge into the Twenty- first Century. We hope that the Allen Chair for this year will contribute toward achieving that goal. The distinguished group of scholars invited to participate in the Allen Chair this year have all thought hard and long about these issues. They have traveled to other countries and studied and evaluated these countries' alternative structures. They have been part of private law firms and governmental organizations. They have looked at the issues they address from a variety of perspectives. Their answers are often daring and novel, pointing to a new reality which demands our attention. We have the opportunity at the Law School this year to listen to all these views in a single lecture series, discuss these views with their authors, and then reflect upon the accumulated body of knowledge in order to formulate our own answers to the millennial challenge facing our country.”