School of Law

Monday, Oct. 4, the opening day of the Supreme Court term, marks Elena Kagan’s first day behind the bench as a Supreme Court justice. Gregory Magarian, JD, professor of law at Washington University In St. Louis and former clerk for retired Justice John Paul Stevens, says that the experience of oral argument from the other side of the bench will be entirely new to Kagan. “There is no formal or conventional restriction on new arrivals’ participation in argument, but in all likelihood, Justice Kagan will display a bit of reserve at first while she gets used to the rhythm of questioning by nine justices,” Magarian says.

Playground, a film on child trafficking in the United States, will be screened at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in Steinberg Hall auditorium. A panel discussion featuring Libby Spears, the film’s director, and local experts will follow the documentary.

The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., and Washington University in St. Louis announced recipients of grants from the joint Academic Venture Fund that support collaborations between scholars at WUSTL and Brookings working on projects that impact research, education and policy.

Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times and best-selling author, will present “Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women Worldwide” at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, in Graham Chapel. Kristof’s talk, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Lecture in Social Policy, is free and open to the public.

Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and Saint Louis University Law School are co-hosting the Colloquium on Current Scholarship in Labor and Employment Law Friday and Saturday, Sept. 24 and 25.

Tokiyasu Fujita (left), former justice on the Supreme Court of Japan and Hiroshi Itoh, PhD, professor of political science at State University of New York at Plattsburgh, speak during the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s two-day symposium Decision-Making on the Japanese Supreme Court Sept. 10. The Center for Empirical Research in the Law hosted the conference.

WUSTL’s campus-wide entrepreneurship curriculum has been recognized as one of the best in the country by The Princeton Review survey published in Entrepreneur magazine today.  WUSTL’s undergrad and graduate programs placed in the top ten out of more than 2000 schools. A venture started by three WUSTL students also is featured in the October magazine on newsstands and online Sept. 21.

Kevin Washburn, JD, professor and dean of the school of law at the University of New Mexico, will deliver a talk on “Improving Criminal Justice for American Indians,” at noon Thursday, Sept. 23, for the Assembly Series. The program, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall.

A search is under way to fill a new vice provost position in the Office of the Provost whose initial focus will be on diversity and faculty development, among other areas of university-wide importance. An advisory committee has been formed that will identify and recommend candidates from within the Washington University community.

The Washington University in St. Louis School of Law has announced that 22 recent graduates have secured judicial clerkships this year in 13 different states and the District of Columbia. Eighteen clerks are 2010 graduates and four are alumni. Despite a difficult job market, the total number of law school graduates securing clerkships rose by more than 40 percent over 2009.