Business & Entrepreneurship

Stephen H. Legomsky, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel, plans to discuss the evolving topic of immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis on Thursday, April 11. Legomsky will present the 2012-13 Tyrrell Williams Lecture, “Immigration and the Role of the Government Attorney.”​

Author and political scientist Cathy Cohen studies American politics and particularly how they affect African-Americans, women and the LGBTQ community – never ignoring the intersections between these identity categories. She will be on campus April 9 to give a lecture titled “Race, Sex and Neoliberalism in the Age of Obama.”

Ronald Levin, JD, the William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law, has been elected to the American Law Institute (ALI), a national independent organization that focuses on producing scholarly work to clarify and modernize the law. Membership in the ALI is based on professional achievement and a demonstrated interest in improving the law. ALI will also honor the Hon. William H. Webster, JD ’49, with the Henry J. Friendly Medal. One of the ALI’s highest honors, the medal is awarded periodically to individuals who have made significant contributions to the law.

Linda Babcock, co-author of “Women Don’t Ask: Negotiations and the Gender Divide,” will discuss that topic during a public lecture at 9 a.m. April 12 in Simon Hall, Room 106. The lecture is part of the “Distinguished Women in Economics and Strategy” series sponsored by WUSTL’s Center for Research in Economics and Strategy, housed in Olin Business School.

As the U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) conclude, it looks like the justices are ready to strike down the law, says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The crucial thing about this case is that the Court can strike down DOMA without impacting the right or lack thereof of someone to marry,” he says.

Surveillance is everywhere, from street corner cameras to the subject of books and movies. “We talk a lot about why surveillance is bad, but we don’t really know why,” says Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “We only have a vague intuition about it, which is why courts don’t protect it. We know we don’t like it, and that it has something to do with privacy, but beyond that, the details can be fuzzy.” Richards’ new article on the topic, “The Danger of Surveillance,” will be published in the next issue of the Harvard Law Review.

John Inazu, JD, first amendment expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, was invited to provide testimony to the United States Commission on Civil Rights briefing on “Peaceful Coexistence? Reconciling Non-discrimination Principles with Civil Liberties.”

Beginning in fall 2013, Washington University School of Law will offer the Semester-in-Practice Externship, an innovative program that empowers second- and third-year law students to gain hands-on professional experience anywhere in the country. Through the externship program, students will earn academic credit by spending a semester working full time for a nonprofit, government, or in-house corporate law office in the location of their choice.

There is little on which the two Houses of Congress and the President can find compromise these days, with the sequester a vivid symbol of this polarization. And gridlock in government would only worsen if the proposed REINS Act moves forward, says Ronald M. Levin, JD, administrative law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

LockerDome CEO and cofounder Gabe Lozano, who spoke recently at Olin Business School, shares some of the credit for attracting investors with students at Olin. Student teams in one of the school’s venture consulting courses worked closely with LockerDome’s CFO, Mark Lewis, on market and financial analysis research projects this semester. Here, Lozano speaks about the collaboration via video.