Babson College law professor Ross D. Petty was named winner of the Charles Hewett Master Teacher Award for 2008 by the Academy of Legal Studies of Business (ALSB).
Petty, a 20-year member of Babson’s faculty was one of four finalists selected to present a short business law class before an audience of business law professors at the ALSB’s annual meeting in Long Beach, California. His sample class was entitled “Judo Brand Diversion: How to Use Other People’s Trademarks to Your Advantage.” Petty teaches this class in his MBA elective Branding Law Workshop for Entrepreneurs and as a guest lecturer in Babson’s Brand Management electives.
Professor Petty’s primary research interest is the intersection of marketing, law and public policy. Petty is the author of The Impact of Advertising Law on Business and Public Policy (Quorum Books, 1992), and has published over 70 articles in law or marketing journals. His research and publications have been recognized for excellence by both the legal and marketing communities. Most recently, he co-authored a paper that earned the 2005 Best Paper Award from the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, published by the American Marketing Association.
Petty currently holds the Zwerling Family Term Chair, and held the Roger A. Enrico Term Chair from 1992 through 1997.
Prior to teaching at Babson, Petty practiced law with the Federal Trade Commission. He earned a M.B.A. from the University of Rochester; a M.P.A. from Harvard University; and his J.D., from the University of Michigan. He lives in Wayland, Massachusetts, with his wife Beverly. They have two children currently attending college.
Petty is the second member of the Babson faculty to receive this award; Professor Carolyn Hotchkiss won it in 2000. Babson is the first - and only thus far - school to have had two faculty members win the 10-year old Charles Hewett Master Teacher Award.
Founded in 1924, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (International) is an association of teachers and scholars in the fields of business law, legal environment, and law-related courses outside of professional law schools. The nearly 1,000 members teach primarily in schools of business in colleges and universities, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Members come from all fifty states, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, and a number of other nations. The Academy provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, and encourages support and cooperation among those who teach and conduct research in the field of legal studies. In addition, the ALSB works to foster understanding and cooperation between college and university administrators and its constituency.
