Visiting Assistant Professor Deborah Hoffman co-led a CEO roundtable hosted by Essent Mortgage Insurance alongside industry executive Eric Lapin on March 27. The session convened senior leaders across the mortgage industry to discuss the role of blockchain and digital assets in housing finance.

The discussion examined how existing digital infrastructure, including e-docs, eNotes, remote online notarization, and licensing frameworks, has evolved in recent years while underlying systems remain fragmented. Professor Hoffman highlighted legal and compliance considerations related to verification, auditability, and the integration of digital assets into lending practices.

The roundtable also explored blockchain’s potential as an infrastructure layer to support more consistent, transparent, and defensible data across the mortgage lifecycle.

On March 27, Professor Lorenzo Luisetto presented a new working paper, “Beyond the Global Rise of Noncompetes,” at the Law & Economics Conference hosted by Vanderbilt Law School. The conference featured eight speakers presenting research on a wide range of topics, including labor‑market regulation and the economics of crime.

In his talk, Professor Luisetto presented a new work in progress based on the first multi‑country survey on the use of noncompete agreements across 15 OECD countries, complementing evidence from employee surveys with information from firms.