Business & Entrepreneurship

There are currently a record 52 military veterans enrolled at Olin Business School Of those, 32 are enrolled in the Yellow Ribbon Program. Established by the federal government in 2008, the program allows institutions of higher learning in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund tuition and fee expenses at their school.

The International Criminal Court at Ten will attract attorneys and professionals from across the globe to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the court. The meeting takes place Sunday Nov. 11 and Monday Nov. 12 at the School of Law.

The annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition kicks off at 4 p.m. today in Simon Hall. This year’s case will revolve around vacant land use in St. Louis. Open to all Washington University graduate and undergraduate students, the OSCC provides participants with a chance to learn about practical, real-world applications of corporate responsibility and sustainability concepts so that they can make an impact in the world around them.

Despite evidence supporting boardroom diversity as a driver of corporate performance, “the percentage of women directors on U.S. boards stagnated some years ago and remains at or near 12 percent, with fewer than 10 percent of boards having three or more women,” says Hillary A. Sale, JD, the Walter D. Coles professor of law at Washington University School of Law. “The pressure to add women directors is, however, growing.”  Sale discusses options to grow board diversity.

The WUSTL community recently honored David M. Becker, JD, associate dean for external relations and the Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor Emeritus of the Law of Property, on his 50th year of teaching at the School of Law.

The upcoming holiday season brings with it the annual gaze upon religious displays — and the legal issues that come with them. “The Supreme Court’s approach to public religious displays under the Establishment Clause has been less than clear,” says John Inazu, JD, expert on religion and the constitution and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.“Some commentators have described it as the ‘three plastic animals rule’ –a Christian nativity scene on public property passes muster if it is accompanied by a sufficient combination of Rudolph, Frosty, and their friends.” Inazu says that future litigation will likely press against this line-drawing, but even apparent victories for religious liberty may come at a significant cost.

More than 1,100 School of Law alumni and friends are returning to campus today and tomorrow for Alumni Weekend and to celebrate the 2012 milestone of Professor David M. Becker’s 50th year of teaching. Becker, JD, associate dean for external relations and the Joseph H. Zumbalen Professor Emeritus of the Law of Property, is a popular teacher and mentor known for his service and dedication to the law school.

Advances in medicine allow doctors to keep patients alive longer, tackle fertility problems and extend the viability of premature babies. They also lead to a growing number of moral questions for both the medical provider and patient. “Across the country, so-called conscience legislation allows doctors and nurses to refuse to provide abortions, contraception, sterilizations, and end-of-life care,” says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, health law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “But legislators have totally overlooked the consciences of providers who have made the conscientious judgment to deliver care and of the patients who seek these treatments.” Sepper says that conscience in the medical setting needs to be protected more consistently. “The one-sided protection of refusal cannot stand,” she says. “Just as we wouldn’t say that giving students vouchers only for Christian schools furthers religious freedom, we can’t say that current conscience legislation successfully lives up to its goal of protecting conscience.

Critical data for more than 2,300 federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cases now are available online thanks to a multi-year effort of researchers at Washington University School of Law’s Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL). The EEOC Litigation Project, which spans the period between 1997 and 2006, makes readily available detailed information about the EEOC’s enforcement litigation to legal scholars, social scientists, and policy-makers.

Panos Kouvelis, PhD, senior associate dean and director of executive programs at Olin Business School and an expert in the field of supply chain management, has been named to the U.S. Commerce Department’s new Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness.