Business & Entrepreneurship

Robert Bork was a major figure in the history of American law, and of the Supreme Court, says Neil Richards, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and former law clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. “There is a great irony to Bork’s death this week, a day after the House of Representatives voted to relax the privacy protections in the so-called “Bork Bill,” the federal law that protects the privacy of our video records.”

On Dec. 7, President Barack Obama signed legislation to delay implementation of the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, which would require Internet posting of the annual financial interest forms for 28,000 executive branch employees. A law, WUSTL Congressional ethics expert Kathleen Clark says, that will not prevent Congressional insider trading.

Coming up with creative, fresh ideas does not necessarily imply that theywill ultimately be put into practice. However, the odds of one’s ideas making it into practice are better when people are driven to push their ideas through the organization and are savvy networkers, finds new research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

You try doing homework in the dark. For school-aged children across the developing world, access to electrical lighting remains precarious. Enter the Little Sun, a solar-powered lamp designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Now Little Sun is at the center of two projects involving WUSTL students and faculty, which stretch from the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum to the villages of Madagascar.

Alum Robbie Garrison (left), of MMBiosensing, LLC, talks with Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, following the selection of Garrison’s firm as one of seven finalists for the 2012 Olin Cup during a ceremony Nov. 8 in Simon Hall.

Everyone knows someone who overshares on social media, from constant updates about daily minutiae to an automatically generated stream of songs listened to, articles read, games played and other matters blast-broadcast through various applications. Intentional over-sharers may be a necessary nuisance in our wired world, but the days of the auto-generated social media stream may be numbered, says Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

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.