Isabelle Zhang

Isabelle Zhang

SJD Candidate
University of Virginia School of Law
SJD, University of Virginia School of Law, 2021 – present
JSM, Stanford Law School, 2021
Juris Master, Peking University Law School, 2017
BA in Philosophy (Logic & Computation), Sun Yat-sen University, 2014

About

I am an SJD candidate at the University of Virginia School of Law, where my research focuses on corporate finance and securities regulation. My recent work examines mandatory disclosure and cross-border enforcement in U.S. securities markets, private placement disclosure, and the effects of public venture capital on entrepreneurship. My work has been published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies and is forthcoming in the Berkeley Business Law Journal. My dissertation is supervised by Professor Paul G. Mahoney.

Before entering academia, I was an associate at Affinity Equity Partners, a pan-Asian private equity firm, and practiced with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s mergers and capital markets group. I hold a JSM from Stanford Law School, a Juris Master from Peking University Law School (China National Scholarship, top 0.2%), and a BA in philosophy (concentration in logic and computation) from Sun Yat-sen University.

Research

Publications

Government Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, vol. 22, no. 4 (2025)
Media: European Corporate Governance Institute Blog, Oxford Business Law Blog
Journal ECGI Blog Oxford BLB
Government venture capital funds (GVCs) are a global phenomenon. GVCs are central players in China’s VC market, now the second largest globally. While existing literature often depicts China’s GVCs as a successful public effort to promote entrepreneurship, this paper presents an alternative view. It explores the effect of city-level GVC programs on entrepreneurship, as proxied by the formation of new businesses. Using a hand-collected 20-year dataset covering GVC program adoption, early-stage investments, and new firm formation in 280 prefectural cities and employing difference-in-differences and weighted stacked event study methods, I find that Chinese GVCs are associated with a decrease in overall new firm formation. Interview-based evidence and a triple-differences analysis by industrial sector suggest that this result is driven by stringent investment restrictions imposed by GVC programs, which absorb private sector capital into GVC funds targeting specific industries, thereby discouraging new firm formation in non-policy-supported sectors. These findings offer a cautionary note to global policymakers regarding the complexities of public finance strategies aimed at boosting entrepreneurship.
TikTok v. Garland: U.S. Regulators and the New Corporate Control Frontier
Berkeley Business Law Journal, vol. 23, no. 1 (forthcoming 2026)
SSRN

Working Papers

Legalism without Information: Foreign Issuers, U.S. Enforcement, and the Limits of Bonding
Complete draft available upon request
Evidence from Private Placement Memoranda
with Professors Colleen Honigsberg and Edwin Hu, draft in progress
Venture Capital Contracting around Sovereignty
Invited book chapter, draft in progress
Proposed Paper on Mandatory Disclosure
with Professor Paul Mahoney, draft in progress
Re-engineering the Venture Capital and Private Equity Market: Lessons from Stock Market Exits
Complete draft available upon request

Policy Commentary

The Hidden Tradeoff in Public Venture Capital
European Corporate Governance Institute Blog (July 2025); Oxford Business Law Blog (October 2025)
ECGI Blog Oxford BLB

Presentations

Legalism without Information
  • American Law and Economics Association Annual Conference, University of Chicago (2026)
  • Stanford Law Workshop, Stanford Law School (2026)
  • Wharton Financial Regulation Annual Conference, University of Pennsylvania (2026)
  • Michigan Law Junior Scholar Conference, University of Michigan School of Law (2026)
  • National Business Law Scholars Annual Conference, William S. Boyd School of Law (2026)
  • Law and Society Annual Conference, Corporate and Securities Panel, San Francisco (2026)
  • Colloquium Workshop, University of Virginia Law School (2026)
  • Young Empirical Scholar Workshop, Cornell Law School (2025)
Government Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China
  • The Law and Finance of Private Equity and Venture Capital, London School of Economics and Political Science (2025)
  • Corporate Law and Governance Cluster, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2025)
  • National Business Law Scholars Conference, UCLA Law School (2025)
  • Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Emory Law School (2024)
  • Yale Asian Law Junior Scholars Workshop, Yale Law School (2024)
  • Law and Entrepreneurship Association Annual Retreat, UC Law San Francisco (2024)
  • Colloquium Workshop, University of Virginia Law School (2023)
TikTok v. Garland: U.S. Regulators and the New Corporate Control Frontier
  • Law and Society Annual Conference, Chicago (2025)
  • APALSA Law Review Annual Conference, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (2025)
  • Colloquium Workshop, University of Virginia Law School (2024)
Re-engineering the Venture Capital and Private Equity Market: Lessons from Stock Market Exits
  • Legal Studies Workshop, Stanford Law School (2021)
  • Empirical Research Methods Workshop, Stanford Law School (2021)
Other Invited Conferences
  • Law and Macroeconomic Annual Conference, New York University School of Law (2025)
  • Law and Entrepreneurship Association Annual Retreat, Cardozo School of Law (2025)
  • The Law and Finance of Private Equity and Venture Capital, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (2024)

Teaching and Service

Teaching

Service

Contact

Email xz2uy@virginia.edu
Address University of Virginia School of Law
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
SSRN