Faculty Profile: Carrie Stanton Carrie Stanton teaches and writes in the areas of contracts, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance, among other topics.

By Law Communications
February 2, 2026

Following more than a decade of corporate law practice, Professor Carrie Stanton joined W&L Law in 2023 as a visiting assistant professor (VAP), a position she held for two years before joining the permanent faculty this past fall on the tenure-track. She teaches and writes in the areas of contracts, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance, among other topics.

Stanton grew up in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, where her father was a lawyer with a general practice in trusts and estates and real estate, and her mother was a teacher. "My dad is still practicing to this day, and my mom is retired," she said. "So I've kind of blended my parents' careers at this point."

Despite coming from a family of Tar Heels, Stanton chose UVA for her undergraduate studies, where she was a government major but also studied journalism, writing for student newspapers and independent weeklies. An internship with a local NPR station gave her the opportunity to cover some courtroom stories, which further piqued her interest in the law. "I started to feel the pull of wanting to 'do the thing' instead of just write about it."

A year on the staff at Duke Law School, where she was able to sit in on classes and get a feel for what law school would be like, solidified Stanton's decision to attend law school. She returned to Charlottesville for her legal studies, working as a summer associate at Williams Mullen, the firm she would join after graduating from law school. She gravitated toward the collaborative nature of transactional work during her summer rotations and would begin her practice career with the firm as a corporate law generalist. "I did a lot of mergers and acquisitions to start-due diligence and the kinds of things first-year associates do on an M&A team," she said. "I also handled general corporate work-forming businesses, governance, board meetings-and some commercial contracting."

Stanton's path to law teaching began inside the firm. "I was doing some teaching in-house-training junior associates-and really enjoying that," she said. "I started to imagine what a syllabus might look like for a law school class. Commercial contracts, to me, are really fertile training ground for young lawyers. They're smaller and easier to package than a big M&A deal, but you're still 'doing a deal,' so the pieces look the same."

Stanton pitched her course idea to the academic dean at UVA Law and began teaching there as an adjunct. She taught a hands-on commercial contracting practicum on drafting and negotiation and later covered an introductory law and business course for a UVA mentor. "I started to accept that I was feeling drawn to teaching full-time-I had scholarship ideas and was excited about that path," she said. She made inquiries to several law schools and was invited to join W&L Law as a VAP. With her extensive practice experience and innovative teaching focus, Stanton was a key addition to the already strong corporate law faculty at W&L Law. She also joined a cohort of early career law professors with whom she could share feedback on scholarship during junior faculty workshops.

Stanton was in demand when she went on the teaching market at the conclusion of her VAP term, but she said choosing to stay at W&L Law felt natural. "I love this part of the world, and I really felt that I was thriving in this environment," Stanton said. "I get to know the students in a real way here. They come to office hours with great questions about the material and about practice. I did recruiting for my firm for a long time, so I've been on all sides of it-and I'm glad I can give that back."

Much of Stanton's research springs from what she experienced in practice and can now examine more deeply. Her paper "Risk, Reimagined: The Untold Story of Liability Laddering in Modern Commercial Dealmaking," published in the Journal of Corporation Law, examines previously unexplored multi-tiered systems of contractual damages caps. In "Scrutinizing Succession," published in the Wisconsin Law Review, Stanton explores the growing but still nascent succession scholarship, as well as robust literature on corporate fiduciary duties and mergers and acquisitions, to propose new solutions to the many problems that companies face at the time of succession. Other pieces in the works include an examination of representation and warranty insurance and an article focusing on the human side of private-equity-owned businesses. "A lot's been written about cost-cutting and layoffs. I'm interested in what it looks like for the employees who stay-and what it looks like if they want to leave."

Perhaps the most personal thread in her agenda is examining the unique relationship lawyers have with time and "being on a clock all the time, under really intense time pressure," Stanton said. "I'm interested in the impacts that has on ethical decisions, moral decisions, and how you spend your time-pro bono, community service, and otherwise." Stanton's focus on improving the practice of law through her scholarship is intentional because she wants her students to have great careers.

"Students at W&L Law come in with so much energy, and it's exciting to hear about the things they want to do with their law degree," she said. "I want the practice of law to be better for the next generation-and my scholarship is one way to help."

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