WUSTL Business & Law News

Why is it easier to lose 2-4 pounds rather than 3 pounds?

2013-06-18 00:00:00

Consumers are more likely to pursue goals when they are ambitious yet flexible, according to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

Stephen M. Nowlis

"Whether a goal is a high-low range goal (lose two to four pounds this week) or a single number goal (lose three pounds this week) has a systematic effect on goal reengagement. High-low range goals influence consumer goal reengagement through feelings of accomplishment, which itself is driven by the attainability and challenge of the goal," writes study co-author Stephen M. Knowlis, PhD, the August A. Busch Jr. Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Olin Business School.

The study, "The Effect of Goal Specificity on Consumer Goal Reengagement," written with Maura Scott, PhD, of Florida State University, appears in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Consumers often have a choice about the types of goals they want to set for themselves, and they may want to repeat various goals over time. For example, consumers often reengage goals such as losing weight, saving money, or improving their exercise or sports performance.

In one study conducted by the authors, consumers in a weight loss program set either high-low range goals or single number goals. At the end of the program, consumers with high-low range goals reenrolled in the program at higher rates even though there was no difference in actual average weight loss across the two groups. In other studies, consumers exhibited similar behaviors with other goals such as resisting tempting foods, solving puzzles or playing a grocery shopping game.

A high-low range goal can offer "the best of both worlds" compared to a single number goal due to its flexibility: the high end of the goal (lose four pounds) increases the challenge of the goal, while the low end (lose two pounds) increases its attainability. On the other hand, a single number goal (lose three pounds) may be perceived as a compromise and therefore both less challenging and less attainable.

"Consumers are more likely to pursue a goal when they set a high-low range goal instead of a single number goal. Consumers experience a greater sense of accomplishment when a goal is both attainable and challenging, and this makes them want to continue to pursue or reengage their goal," the authors conclude.

Nation's 2013 young entrepreneur award winner to study business at WUSTL

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:45:47 CST

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The National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation (YEF) awarded budding business owner, Shea Gouldd, its highest honor today, naming her the 2013 Young Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. As the winner of YEF’s top prize, Ms. Gouldd, who resides in Boynton Beach, Fla., will receive a $10,000 educational scholarship to attend Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., this fall where she will study Business.

The National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation (YEF) awarded budding business owner, Shea Gouldd, its highest honor today, naming her the 2013 Young Entrepreneur of the Year at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

As the winner of YEF’s top prize, Gouldd, who resides in Boynton Beach, Fla., will receive a $10,000 educational scholarship to attend WUSTL his fall where she will study business at Olin Business School.

“Each year, NFIB’s Young Entrepreneur Awards remind us of the value of hard work, determination and most importantly of dreaming big. Ms. Gouldd and her fellow finalists give us tremendous confidence in the next generation of business owners,” said NFIB President and CEO Dan Danner.

“We are thrilled to know that even in tough economic times, so many young people, like Shea, are motivated to build their own businesses, pursue their dreams and keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in America. Our nation’s future is all the brighter because of their determination and innovative ideas.”

Gouldd owns and operates Shea’s Bakery, a gourmet bakery that she founded at the age of 14. Over the last several years, Shea’s Bakery has gained notoriety and attention for her made-to-order baked goods, becoming the No. 1 bakery in Delray Beach according to urbanspoon.com and a preferred wedding cake vendor at local hotels.

Shea’s Bakery is also a community-conscious business, donating 10 percent of all profits to charity. Gouldd’s business success grew out of her favorite hobby, baking, and into a business that now employs three people.

“Entrepreneurship is in my blood,” says Gouldd, whose innovative baking ideas, such as “Pattycakes” and cake push-up pops have made her business highly competitive and successful.

Gouldd was selected from a group of finalists from around the country, each of whom received a $5,000 scholarship and also attended the D.C. ceremony where they were recognized for their business endeavors.

The awards are part of the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Award scholarship program that is designed to recognize, reward and encourage young men and women to pursue their dreams of owning and operating a small business. NFIB’s Young Entrepreneur Foundation established its scholarship program to raise awareness among the nation’s youth about the critical role of private enterprise and entrepreneurship in growing America’s economy.

The foundation selected today’s recipients from a nationwide applicant pool of more than 500 students. Award recipients will use the scholarships to attend the university, college, community college or career institute of their choice.

To qualify for an NFIB Young Entrepreneur Award, students must seniors in high school who own and/or operate their own small business. They were required to write an essay describing their entrepreneurial endeavors and future goals. NFIB members around the country interviewed the applicants for the Young Entrepreneur Awards. An independent, outside committee selects a group of qualified semi-finalists.

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Editor's note: NFIB media conact is Cynthia Magnuson 202-314-2036 or Cynthia.Magnuson@NFIB.org

SCOTUS Myriad Genetics decision a significant shift from status quo

2013-06-13 00:00:00

In the Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics decision, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that naturally occurring DNA sequences are “products of nature” and therefore cannot be patented.

Collins

“The Supreme Court’s holding represents a significant shift from the status quo,” said Kevin Emerson Collins, JD, patent law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It reverses both the lower court and 20 years of precedent at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”

Collins discusses the decision, including its potential economic impact:

The economic impact of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Myriad Genetics will consist of both benefits and costs. On the one hand, genetic material will be more available to researchers, making the path to future innovations that employ genetic material as part of the research process a bit smoother.

On the other hand, the reduction in the scope of patentable subject matter may decrease investment in the biotech industry, as investors are less certain how companies will earn a profit. The size of the reduction in investment in the biotech industry will depend upon the breadth the opinion is given in subsequent cases.

If the opinion is interpreted narrowly so that it applies only to DNA, then its economic impact may not be very large.

Not many biotech companies still have business models that are dependent on patents covering naturally occurring DNA sequences. However, there is nothing in the opinion that suggests that it will be limited to DNA. It is likely to apply to all naturally occurring molecules, and the number of biotech companies that rely on patent protection for isolated and purified naturally occurring molecules in general is likely much higher.

One question that remains to be answered in future cases is how much of a change to a naturally occurring substance is required to transform a product of nature into a patentable, man-made invention.

By invalidating Myriad’s claims to naturally occurring sequences isolated from human chromosomes, the Supreme Court held that the simple act of “snipping” a particular sequence out of a longer DNA molecule was not enough of a change to give rise to a patentable invention.

However, the Supreme Court also provided a limit to the exclusion of products of nature from the patent regime. It held that cDNA claims — claims to human genes with naturally occurring “junk” DNA sequences (introns) removed — describe patentable inventions rather than products of nature.

Missouri’s juvenile justice system in crisis, finds report

Jessica Martin — 2013-06-10 00:00:00

Missouri has been held out as a model for juvenile corrections programs, but the court system that puts young people into these programs is in crisis, finds a recent report by the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC).

“Many young people in Missouri wind up having to defend themselves in our juvenile courts – and sometimes from behind bars,” says Mae C. Quinn, JD, professor of law and co-director of the Civil Justice Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis.

“These young people deserve counsel to assist them throughout the juvenile court process, but due to inadequate funding and the problematic –potentially unconstitutional – structure of Missouri’s juvenile court system, this is not happening.”

http://youtu.be/3kd2dJd7Sko

Mae Quinn, JD, professor of law and co-director of the Civil Justice Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis, says that "Many young people in Missouri wind up having to defend themselves in our juvenile courts -- and sometimes from behind bars."

Quinn notes that juveniles pulled into the court system have a hard time pulling themselves out. “In fact, our juvenile court system often fails to account for modern due process norms. Through outdated practices that largely impact poor and minority children, our courts run the risk of reducing the life chances of our state’s most vulnerable youth,” she says.

“Yet most people don’t know about this part of the Missouri model of juvenile justice – a system that has come to be known across the country as cutting-edge in its approaches.”

The NJDC report found that: 1. Youth are systemically discouraged from accessing, and denied, counsel throughout the state; 2. Their basic rights are not adequately protected and often ignored; and 3. The structure of Missouri’s juvenile court system, by its very nature, presents constitutional issues, inherent conflicts, and a great deal of confusion about official stakeholder roles.

Students in Washington University School of Law’s Civil Justice Clinic are representing juveniles in Missouri. Their work is highlighted in the NJDC as best practices on behalf of young people charged with crimes.

“Our students represent children in Missouri’s courts to raise the bar, to say that business as usual is not good enough,” says Quinn. “The children’s rights are being violated. We are pairing quality juvenile representation with system reform.”

To read the full NJDC report visit: www.njdc.info/missouri.php

Aligning values with employer can lead to promotion, suggests new study

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-06-05 00:00:00

Employees looking to move up within their organization should get on board with the goals and values of their employer, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Stuart Bunderson

The study, “Status and the True Believer: The Impact of Psychological Contracts on Social Status Attributions of Friendship and Influence,” shows that employees who are "true believers" in the mission of their organization gain more influence in the company, while those who are not as invested in the company’s mission become pushed to the periphery.

“In mission-driven companies — companies like Whole Foods Market or REI — the people who emerge as leaders are more than just nice guys. They are the ones who embrace the mission and values of the organization," says Stuart Bunderson, PhD, the George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics & Governance at Olin Business School and co-author of the study.

“But the belief has to be real,” Bunderson says “Faking a value system that aligns with your employer won’t work.”

The researchers tested their hypotheses in two organizations, a for-proﬁt business and a not-for-proﬁt service organization that explicitly embrace a social cause as part of their missions. They found that positions of status and influence more often went to the “true believers.”

The study, which is scheduled to appear in the management journal Organization Science, was co-authored by Bunderson with BYU professors John Bingham, Jeffery Thompson, and Jeffrey Bednar and Ohio State University's James Oldroyd.

Campus Author: The Japanese Supreme Court and Judicial Review

2013-05-30 00:00:00

David S. Law, JD, PhD, professor of law and professor of political science, has published a groundbreaking book on the Japanese judiciary and constitutional adjudication in Japan, titled The Japanese Supreme Court and Judicial Review (Gendaijinbunsha, 2013).

Law

“The book explores why the Japanese Supreme Court has largely failed to enforce Japan’s constitution,” Law says. “It also examines the practical consequences of how the judiciary is organized for the development of Japanese constitutional law, and the relationship between democracy and judicial review.”

Although the book is in Japanese, it draws heavily on articles published in English in the Texas Law Review and Washington University Law Review. The translator, Shin-ichi Nishikawa, is a distinguished political scientist at Meiji University who specializes in the study of the Japanese judiciary and bureaucracy.

Japan’s post-war constitution, the Nihonkoku Kenpō, has been the subject of recent attention as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has renewed efforts to amend the provisions that prohibit Japan from militarizing. While popular among the Japanese people, the 1947 constitution has long been attacked by conservatives for having been “imposed” by the United States, Law observes.

By global standards, the Japanese Constitution is now considered relatively old at 66 years, yet it remains “one of the most up-to-date” and “squarely in the mainstream of global constitutionalism,” according to Law. He points out that, while the Japanese Constitution protects 19 of the “most popular constitutional rights” in the world, the U.S. Constitution includes only 12. For example, unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Japanese Constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sex or social status, protects academic freedom, and contains a right to education.

Although Japan is among the growing number of countries that entrust their courts with special responsibility for upholding democracy and the rule of law by enforcing the constitution, Japan’s Supreme Court has fallen short of discharging this important responsibility, Law argues.
Despite the Nihonkoku Kenpō’s modernism and popularity, Law writes that “it is difficult to think of any constitutional court in the world that is more reluctant to exercise the power of judicial review . . . than the Japanese Supreme Court.” In its history, the Supreme Court of Japan has struck down only eight statutes on constitutional grounds.

Read more, including Law’s explanation for the Japanese high court’s failure to actively enforce the constitution, at:

http://law.wustl.edu/news/pages.aspx?id=9740

Drones may violate international law

Kelly Wiese Niemeyer — 2013-05-23 00:00:00

Sadat

As President Obama gives a speech on national security — including defending U.S. use of drones to combat terrorism — Leila Sadat, JD, international law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, argues that such targeted killing by unmanned planes may violate international humanitarian law. Legalities aside, she also questions whether it promotes U.S. interests abroad.

Sadat wrote about the subject in her article, “America’s Drone Wars,” published in the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law.

Sadat notes that drone strikes have become a major part of U.S. military strategy and counterterror operations, but writes that the U.S. use of drones raises several troubling legal questions, such as what is the legal foundation for government use of lethal force and whether drone strikes are considered acts of aggression against other countries. She finds that the Obama administration largely continued the policy and legal rationale of former President George W. Bush regarding drones.

The U.S. argues there are no geographical constraints in the war on terror, Sadat writes, but adds that most authorities reject that idea.

“The process used by the executive branch to determine who and when to target human beings for death can be summarized in two words: ‘trust us,’” she wrote in the article.

But while she believes the administration is cautious, mistakes still can occur, and innocent civilians get killed, raising legal, political and diplomatic worries for the U.S.

“Some of these ‘mistakes’ end up as YouTube videos … which serve as recruitment devices for al-Qaeda and its associates, and fuel anti-American sentiment in areas where drones are operating,” Sadat wrote.

Sadat recently was appointed a special adviser on crimes against humanity for the International Criminal Court. She also is director of WUSTL’s Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute and the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law.

To review the full article, visit here.

Focus on renewable energy

2013-05-22 00:00:00

Sid Hastings

Robert Blankenship, PhD (second from right), professor of chemistry and biology in Arts & Sciences and director of WUSTL's Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC), poses for a photograph recently with this year's recipients of the Certificate in Renewable Energy and the Environment, sponsored by PARC and the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability. The students who completed the program are (from left) Lucas Harrington, a May graduate in chemistry in Arts & Sciences; Michael Gidding, a May graduate in the Master of Business Adminstration program at Olin Business School and the Master of Engineering program in the School of Engineering & Applied Science; and Michael Yue, a May graduate in environmental earth sciences in Arts & Sciences. The certificate provides an opportunity for students to pursue interdisciplinary energy studies in addition to their major. The program combines academic courses, outreach interaction, hands-on research experience and networking opportunities.

IRS investigation spotlights need for Inspectors General

2013-05-16 00:00:00

An executive branch Inspector General played a critical role in exposing the IRS's practice of targeting Tea Party groups, says Kathleen Clark, JD, anti-corruption expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Clark

“Inspectors General can work internally to investigate alleged wrongdoing, gain access to sensitive documents and information, and report their findings both internally and to Congress and to the public,” Clark writes in a recent post on the Legal Ethics Forum blog.

“As we see with the IRS controversy, an Inspector General investigation can cause heads to roll. Perhaps that's why some government agencies have been without an Inspector General for a very long time - measured not in months, but in years.” Clark notes that the State Department has been without an Inspector General for more than five years.

Washington University School of Law’s Women’s Law Caucus announces International Women’s Day awards

2013-05-15 00:00:00

The Washington University School of Law Women’s Law Caucus (WLC) recently gathered with faculty, alumni, judges and attorneys to honor the organization’s 40th anniversary and to observe the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.

The combined celebration featured brief remarks by Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization of Women, and the announcement of a project exploring women’s history at the law school.

As part of the annual celebration, the WLC also presented the International Women’s Day honorary awards. Introducing this year’s recipients, Jennifer Bame, WLC vice president and chair of the International Women’s Day Committee, said:

“Each of these honorees is a remarkable individual who has made unique contributions to the advancement of women. Each of these honorees demonstrates what is possible for all of us students here at Washington University School of Law. And, each sets an example for us to follow.”
 
The 2013 International Women’s Day honorees are:

Bunny and Charles Burson, for their many contributions to the law school, including generous support for the Burson Fund, which assists students and student groups, including the Women’s Law Caucus. Charles Burson also is a senior professor of practice at the law school.

Phyleccia Reed Cole, JD ’99, associate general counsel at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois;

Micah Myles Hall, JD ’03, founder of the Hall Law Firm in St. Louis, former president of the Mound City Bar Association, and collaborating attorney for the law school’s Race, Education & the Law course;

Marty Neville Hereford, JD ’96, partner and program director for the Advancement of Women at Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis;

Kendra Howard, JD ’01, administrative law judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in St. Louis, treasurer of the Mound City Bar Association, and externship supervising attorney;

Allison Schreiber Lee, JD ’96, attorney at Paule, Camazine, Blumenthal PC and adjunct professor at the law school;

Karen Warren, managing attorney of the Health & Welfare Unit at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, co-coordinator of the Elderlaw & Estate Planning Project, and externship supervising attorney; and

Misty Watson, JD ’06, attorney at Danna McKitrick PC, volunteer lawyer at Legal Services, and co-coordinator of the Elderlaw & Estate Planning Project.

International Women’s Day is an annual event founded a century ago to advance women’s suffrage and equality. The observance still serves as “a rallying point for international efforts for women’s rights and gender equality,” Bame said.

For more information and photos from the event visit: http://law.wustl.edu/news/pages.aspx?id=9696

Washington University teams each win $50,000 Arch Grants in startup competition

Beth Miller and Melody Walker — 2013-05-14 00:00:00

Four startup companies with ties to Washington University in St. Louis have received $50,000 each in the Arch Grants 2013 Global Startup Competition designed to stimulate and support the early-stage entrepreneurial community in St. Louis.

The winning companies are: Sparo Labs, a medical device company founded by two engineering undergraduate students; Juristat, a software company that targets litigators and founded by three alumni; LipoSpectrum LLC, a life science company providing R&D labs with advanced biological lipid-analysis co-founded by an Olin Business School Executive MBA alumnus; and MMBiosensing LLC, which invented a new method of detecting the bio-markers of heart attack and founded by a WUSTL postdoctoral research associate.

The companies were among 20 companies chosen from 40 finalists, trimmed from more than 700 entrants, vying for the $50,000 grants of unrestricted funds. The grants also come with networking and mentoring opportunities and other free services, including legal, accounting, marketing, cloud computing and mentoring support.

Recipients also get access to St. Louis’ angel investment network, the opportunity to be a part of the downtown St. Louis startup community and an opportunity for a $100,000 follow-on grant from Arch Grants.

The win is the latest in a string of awards for Sparo Labs, headed by Andrew Brimer and Abigail Cohen, who are both graduating May 17 from the School of Engineering & Applied Science with bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, respectively.

In April, the team won $25,000 in the engineering school’s inaugural Discovery Competition. In February, the team won $30,000 in the 2013 Olin Cup Competition sponsored by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Last summer, the team won first place in two national engineering competitions, resulting in $15,000 in prizes.

Brimer and Cohen have spent nearly two years developing the product and a prototype that empowers patients to quantitatively track and proactively manage asthma, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and other respiratory diseases via seamless integration with smartphones, tablets and computers — ultimately implementing low-cost diagnostic and monitoring spirometry worldwide.

Most spirometers cost between $1,000-$2,000, making them unaffordable for hospitals and clinics in the developing world. However, the Sparo Labs device costs about $8. The low cost could allow health-care providers in developing countries to purchase the spirometers, which are specially designed for accuracy and durability despite their price.

Sparo Labs has filed for a patent and is preparing the product for clinical trials and FDA approval.

Juristat collects electronic lawsuit case data from state and federal court databases. The company uses a proprietary system to index this data into a single dynamic searchable database. Its product can provide more than 150 unique pieces of litigation intelligence, such as the probability of success on motions and appeal or metrics of an attorney’s experience within a practice area or specific court. Users can then quickly search and produce predictive models allowing lawyers to design the best litigation and marketing strategies.

Juristat was co-founded by CEO Drew Winship, JD, formerly a trial lawyer for the Brown & James law firm and an alumnus of Washington University School of Law; Robert Ward, a developer for Beck Automation; and Jordan Woerndle, an analyst for the Neuroinformatics Research Group at the School of Medicine and an alumnus of the School of Engineering & Applied Science. Kent Syverud, JD, dean of Washington University School of Law, is on the advisory board for Juristat.

LipoSpectrum LLC co-founder and CEO Milind Sant, with a doctorate in organic chemistry and an executive MBA from Olin Business School, is employing patented technology developed at Washington University in this bioscience company. The technology, called Multi Dimensional Mass Spectrometry Shotgun Lipidomics (MDMS-SL), provides enhanced, state-of-the-art lipid analysis from biological samples of all types, including plants, animals and humans. Many fields can benefit from detailed molecular level lipid analysis, including cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, cancer, autoimmune and neurological diseases, nutrition, agriculture and bio-fuel (algae).

MMBiosensing LLC, founded by Amos Danielli, a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Lihong Wang, PhD, in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, has invented and patented a proprietary method of detecting the biomarkers of a heart attack with significantly higher sensitivity and greatly reduced testing time compared to competitors. The company is developing the technology into a point-of-care device that will greatly reduce emergency room wait times and costs to patients and providers, and improve patient outcomes. The company also won $50,000 in the 2013 Olin Cup competition.

The company’s leadership staff – Abu Abraham, Robbie Garrison, and F. Gabriel Santa Cruz – are all graduates of the Olin Business School.

Supreme Court decision closes loophole in Monsanto’s business model

2013-05-13 00:00:00

The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Bowman v. Monsanto holds that farmers who lawfully obtain Monsanto’s patented, genetically modified soybeans do not have a right to plant those soybeans and grow a new crop of soybeans without Monsanto’s permission. “The Court closed a potential loophole in Monsanto’s long-standing business model, prevents Monsanto’s customers from setting up ‘farm-factories’ for producing soybeans that could be sold in competition with Monsanto’s soybeans, and it enables Monsanto to continue to earn a reasonable profit on its patented technology,” says Kevin Collins, JD, patent law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis

Collins

Collins’ comments on the loophole in Monsanto’s business model and the legal controversy with the Bowman v. Monsanto decision follow:

Soybean loophole

Monsanto invented a genetically modified soybean that is resistant to a particular herbicide, glyphosate. This agricultural technology poses an unusual challenge for Monsanto insofar as Monsanto seeks to use patent protection to profit from its invention.

Unlike most technologies, soybeans are to some extent self-replicating: the process of planting genetically modified soybeans leads to the creation of more genetically modified soybeans which, if planted, can generate yet more genetically modified soybeans, etc. To profit from farmers’ use of the patented soybeans year after year, Monsanto must prevent farmers from saving the soybeans harvested from a first crop and replanting them as a second crop.

In large part, Monsanto achieves this goal by requiring farmers who purchase the patented soybeans from Monsanto to sign a technology licensing agreement that contractually forbids the farmers from saving and replanting the harvested soybeans in future growing seasons. However, this contractual solution leaves a loophole that Bowman sought to exploit. Farmers who have signed the technology agreement regularly sell their soybean crops to a grain elevator that, in turn, regularly sells the soybeans for human or animal consumption.

Bowman went to a grain elevator, purchased Monsanto’s genetically modified soybeans, and planted them in his fields. Bowman was not under any contractual obligation to Monsanto; he did not sign a technology licensing agreement when he purchased the soybeans. He therefore argued that he had the right to re-plant the soybeans he purchased and to grow a new crop. This is the potential loophole in Monsanto’s ability to prevent the saving and replanting of its patented soybeans that the Supreme Court closed in Bowman v. Monsanto.

Legal controversy

More technically, the legal controversy in Bowman arises from the convergence of the unusual technological capacity of patented soybeans to self-replicate when planted and the patent doctrine of exhaustion.

The exhaustion doctrine states that an unrestricted sale of a patented article exhausts the patentee’s rights with respect to that article.

When a consumer buys a patented good—say, a vacuum cleaner—in an over-the-counter transaction, the consumer may use the vacuum cleaner for its intended purpose of cleaning without infringing the patent. However, the exhaustion doctrine is limited in that the purchase of the vacuum cleaner does not give the patent owner the right to make a second vacuum cleaner.

This limit on the exhaustion doctrine is an intuitive one: it is necessary for a patent owner to continue to earn a profit on a patented technology throughout the full term of a patent.

Bowman’s argument hinges on the fact that the clean distinction between a normally exhausted right to use a patented good for its intended purpose and a normally not-exhausted right to make new patented goods collapses when the patented technology is a self-replicating soybean.

The normal and ordinary way in which a farmer uses a soybean (planting it) necessarily makes new soybeans (the harvested crop). Bowman argued that his right to use the purchased soybeans therefore entailed a right to make new soybeans.

The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that the exhaustion doctrine did not give Bowman the right to purchase the patented soybeans at the grain elevator, plant them, and grow a new crop. The Court’s reasoning relied primarily on the fact that there are many ways to use soybeans that do not require self-replication (e.g., using the soybeans for human or animal consumption).

Sant named co-director of IP/Nonprofit Law Clinic

2013-05-14 00:00:00

Sant

Geetha Sant, JD, soon will become co-director of Washington University School of Law's Intellectual Property & Nonprofit Organizations Law Clinic.

She will begin her duties July 1, succeeding Peter H. Ruger, JD, who will retire June 30. Sant also will serve as a lecturer in law.

Sant is a former adjunct professor for the Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management program at Washington University in St. Louis’ University College. She earned a law degree from WUSTL in 1989. For more information, visit here.

Law professor Martin installed as Nagel Chair

2013-05-09 00:00:00

Jerry Naunheim

Andrew D. Martin, PhD, vice dean at Washington University School of Law, delivers his address, “Institutional Empiricism in the 21st Century,” during his installation as the Charles Nagel Chair of Constitutional Law and Political Science.

Andrew D. Martin, PhD, vice dean at Washington University School of Law, recently was installed as the Charles Nagel Chair of Constitutional Law and Political Science.

This professorship honors Martin’s work as both a professor of law and a professor of political science in Arts & Sciences. He also serves as the founding director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law. Since 2000, when he joined the Washington University faculty, Martin has mentored nearly 20 doctoral students and received the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2011 from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

In addition, he is a principal of Principia Empirica LLC, an analytics consultancy that provides empirically grounded recommendations to businesses, law firms, government agencies and nonprofits. With an expertise in the study of judicial decision making, and a special emphasis on the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, Martin also works extensively in the field of political methodology and applied statistics.

“Andrew has become a giant among scholars and professors of constitutional law and political science,” said Kent Syverud, dean of the law school and the Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor, during the installation ceremony. “His dozens of articles are careful, rigorous and insightful. They’ve come to define the standard for empirical studies of courts in the United States and in the world.”

In addition to Syverud, Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the faculty and Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, offered remarks during Martin’s installation as the Nagel Chair. Lee Epstein, PhD, Provost Professor of Law and Political Science and the Rader Family Trustee Chair in Law at the University of Southern California, introduced Martin after a welcome by Edward S. Macias, PhD, provost and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences.

The Nagel Chair was established through a bequest from Daniel Noyes Kirby in 1945. It honors Charles Nagel, Kirby’s longtime friend, law partner and fellow lecturer at Washington University School of Law. Nagel was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1881 to 1883, a member of the Republican National Committee from 1908 to 1912, and U.S. secretary of commerce and labor in the cabinet of President William Howard Taft from 1909 to 1913.

To read more and watch a video of the installation visit here.

JERRY NAUNHEIM

Martin is congratulated by his daughter, Olive.

‘Don’t despair’ and six other career tips for new college graduates

Mark W. Smith, JD — 2013-05-06 00:00:00

Photo: Mark Katzman

Who can forget Dustin Hoffman’s character in the 1967 American movie classic The Graduate? Mild-mannered and adrift, Ben Braddock immortalized the situation of the successful college graduate who returns home without a job or immediate prospects.

With today’s economy and job market for new college gradates so uncertain, many more recent college graduates are duplicating Ben’s experience — but typically without the cool humor, existential angst or Anne Bancroft in black, thigh-high stockings. The situation frustrates graduates and their parents alike.

In spite of a sluggish job market for today’s graduates, there are a few specific things both parents and graduates can do to move forward during this time of waiting.

1. Don't despair.

Graduates, you are not alone, and your situation will change. Remember, this can be a difficult time and your friends and family can help you through it.

Parents, remember that a lobster grows by shedding its exoskeleton and crawling under a big, safe rock until it can grow a new shell. Your little lobster has just shed his student exoskeleton. You are that big, safe rock your child may need to crawl under until he or she develops a new professional shell.

2. Change your way of thinking about your job search.

Graduates, don't model your job search on your college application process. It's easy to fill out applications — most likely online — and wait to hear what happens. While that process works well for college or graduate school, it typically will not work for a job search. The appropriate job search paradigm is dating. It is all about meeting lots of people and finding the right fit. That means lots of networking and probably lots of rejections before you find the right position. This is particularly true in this market. Most positions won’t be posted.

Parents, think about people you know who could advise your child about his or her career search.

3. Figure out what you want to do.

Graduates, this can be the scariest but also the most enjoyable part of the process. If you are unsure about your future, think about what you value, what you are good at and how you want to spend your life. Go to a good bookstore. It will have hundreds of books on different careers and career-search strategies. When this discovery process starts working for you, it can be an incredibly exciting time of exploration.

Parents, help your child think about what makes him or her passionate and how that passion might convert to a career.

4. Get organized.

Graduates, create a plan of attack with small, attainable steps. Dedicate a certain amount of time each day to your search and make and keep a job search folder. File various iterations of your cover letters, resumes, and thank you notes there. (And, yes, don’t forget to write thank you notes to anyone who grants you an interview or meeting.) Create a spreadsheet to help you track contacts.

Parents, help your child break down the process into achievable goals.

5. Use your college career office.

Graduates, even if you never visited the office while you were a student, use its services now, but set your expectations appropriately. Don't expect them to have a magic drawer full of jobs. What they do have is an ability to help you focus and execute your search — and they tend to have more time to work with you during the summer.

Parents, you can encourage your children to reach out to their career center, but you can't do it for them.

6. Don't apply to graduate or professional school unless you know why.

Graduates, it is tempting to go back to school because you "need to do something." But be aware: graduate and professional school can increase your debt load without increasing job prospects. Don't go to graduate or professional school unless you know why you are going, where it leads and that you want that career.

7. Consider a volunteer or part-time position.

Graduates, while you are looking for that perfect first job, volunteer on a political campaign or with a local nonprofit agency or advocacy group. Also consider a post-graduate internship. You will meet people who can help with your search. The experience also will prevent a gap on your resume. If you can't afford to be unpaid, take a temporary job. Remember though, your first priority should remain your job search.

Parents, while you certainly didn't pay all of that college tuition so your child could take a volunteer position, this will help in the long run.

Many individuals never take the time to really think about what they want to do and how to do it. They just fall into something and either stay with it or bounce around without direction. While you can't control everything in your life, this is your chance to think, learn and discover opportunities that could result in a satisfying and exciting career rather than a mind-numbing job.

Mark W. Smith, JD, is associate vice chancellor for students and director of the Career Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Defining moments

2013-04-30 00:00:00

http://youtu.be/8WzYuJDLlKg

Washington University in St. Louis students discuss how they internalized the advice presented to them during the Defining Moments course taught at Olin Business School. For more information on the course, visit olin.wustl.edu/academicprograms/MBA/Curriculum/Pages/DefiningMoments.aspx.

Defining Moments, an innovative course offered at Olin Business School, allows students to interact with top leaders in the corporate world who exemplify integrity and excellence. The course engages students to think about how they can achieve success without sacrificing character.

http://youtu.be/9kmaIA_w5-Y

The Defining Moments course at Olin Business School attracts a diverse and impressive array of business leaders to share with students how choices and values shaped their leadership styles.

Hatchery course helps fuel student start-up companies

Neil Schoenherr — 2012-04-26 00:00:00

St. Louis is becoming widely recognized as a hub for entrepreneurship. Students at Washington University in St. Louis are taking advantage of the close proximity to great resources by starting their own business ventures, with the help of a variety of on-campus clubs, competitions and a groundbreaking class.

Mary Butkus

Abby Cohen and Andrew Brimer, co-founders of Sparo Labs, pose with the Olin Cup after winning the top prize in this year's entrepreneurship competition.

The Hatchery, offered by Olin Business School but open to all students, both undergraduate and graduate, is one of the university’s capstone entrepreneurship courses.

It was one of the first business courses in the country to use multidisciplinary team collaboration, mentoring and coaching to support students as they launch enterprises while in college.

Enrolled students can work on their own social or commercial venture ideas or partner with community entrepreneurs to develop theirs.

“The Hatchery is fortunate to have the support of the St. Louis entrepreneurship community for the benefit of the students,” says Clifford Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and one of the course teachers.

“Students are connected with business consultants, subject matter experts and industry leaders to help develop their plans, and a judging panel of entrepreneurs and early-stage investors help evaluate the final results.”

The course is proving quite successful.

“Typically, more than 50 percent of student-initiated ideas are actually launched, an unusually high statistic that speaks to how extraordinarily entrepreneurial Washington University students are,” Holekamp says.

“The course is great because it is structured in a way that provides you with enough guidance that you don’t feel like you’re completely on your own, but enough freedom that you truly learn through experience,” says sophomore Arts & Sciences student Jolijt Tamanaha.

Tamanaha and a team of fellow undergraduates founded Farmplicity, which provides a path for local farm producers to sell fresh goods directly to St. Louis restaurants.

“Ken Harrington (managing director of the university’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and course instructor has put us in contact with so many amazing people, including many chefs and restaurateurs in St. Louis, who helped us flush out our concept,” Tamanaha says.

“At Washington University, our main goal is to have students experience the uncertainty that surrounds entrepreneurial activity,” Harrington says. “The Hatchery is one of several capstone courses where they learn to take action and have impact. Once this happens, they become ‘entrepreneurial’ for life.”

“I think the Hatchery is a fantastic course for those interested in entrepreneurship,” says senior Andrew Brimer, studying mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Brimer and Abby Cohen, a senior majoring in biomedical engineering, used the Hatchery to help hone their business, Sparo Labs. Their award-winning team, which includes students from Olin Business School, is developing a low-cost spirometer, a device that measures lung function. While most of these devices cost between $1,000 and $2,000, Sparo Labs is developing a model that will cost around $8.

“The course forces you to understand all the facets of a business venture and you never stop learning,” Brimer says. “The university is doing a great job promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship on all levels, from the ‘back of a napkin ideas’ that can be pitched at an IdeaBounce, to the Olin Cup or Discovery Competition that help foster more developed or mature projects into real companies with serious funding.”

“The Hatchery really helped us find mentors,” says senior Farmplicity team member Lauren Ortwein, majoring in marketing and operations and supply chain management at Olin Business School. “When you have a whole organization like the Skandarlaris Center helping connect you with local entrepreneurs, opportunity after opportunity presents itself to you when you put in the hard work.”

Olin Business School showcases distinguished alumni

2013-04-23 00:00:00

Olin Business School feted five of its top alumni during the 2013 Olin Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner April 4 at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton.

The school presented four Distinguished Alumni Awards and the Dean's Medal.

Distinguished Alumni Awards went to:

Paulino Do Rego Barros Jr. (EMBA '91), president of Equifax International;
John Dains (BSBA '68), CEO Emeritus of Helm Financial Corporation;
Mary Jo Gorman (EMBA '96), founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care;
Steven G. Segal (BSBA '82), co-founder and special limited partner of J.W. Childs Associates L.P.

The Dean's Medal went to Roger L. Weston, (MBA '67), the chairman of GreatBanc Inc.

For the full list of awardees and their accomplishments, go to olinblog.wustl.edu/2013/03/come-celebrate-olins-2013-distinguished-alumni.

New faculty join Brown School, Law School

2013-04-22 00:00:00

Several new faculty members have joined the Brown School and the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis this academic year. Below are details about their backgrounds.

Brown School

Derek Brown, PhD, is an assistant professor.
Brown teaches courses in the Master of Public Health curriculum. Brown is also a scholar in the Washington University Institute for Public Health, a faculty affiliate in the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention, and senior research fellow at Duke Global Health Institute’s Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research. Brown is conducting research on the economics of child maltreatment, in particular among Medicaid populations using an innovative linkage of Medicaid claims and survey data. Begun with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) support, he continues this work as co-investigator of major grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. His research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Child Abuse and Neglect, Preventive Medicine and Vaccine. Brown is an active member of the CDC’s “Healthy People 2020” work group guiding federal health surveillance on health-related quality of life.

Sheretta Butler-Barnes, PhD, is an assistant professor.
Previously, Butler-Barnes was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at University of Michigan’s School of Education affiliated with the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context. She conducted research on how individual-level factors connected to black youths’ cultural backgrounds (for example, racial identity beliefs and religiosity) and ecological risk and resources (such as community violence, family and peer support) influence their achievement and psychological well-being outcomes. She also was a research assistant with North Carolina Central University’s African American Faith Communities Project. In this role, she investigated ways that faith communities support families and how families teach their children about their cultural heritage, examining such constructs as racial identity, racial socialization and theological orientation within black Protestant faith communities.

Amy A. Eyler, PhD, is an assistant professor.
Her research interests include cancer prevention, health education and behavior, as well as health politics and policy. Eyler conducts research as part of the Prevention Research Center (PRC) in St. Louis. She is principal investigator and coordinator of the Physical Activity Policy Research Network, integrating the work of 10 research sites studying the nature and extent of physical activity policy in a variety of settings. She is responsible for evaluation activities for core PRC projects and serves as collaborative investigator on cancer prevention and dissemination grants while procuring external research funding. Eyler received the Article of the Year Award in 1998 for Health Education and Behavior. Her most recent research has been featured in the American Journal of Health Education, Physical Education and Health and Health Politics Policy Law, among others. Eyler also has been tapped to edit and update the chapter on exercise and fitness in each new edition of the long-running introductory health text Access to Health.

Michal Grinstein-Weiss, PhD, is an associate professor and is associate director of the Center for Social Development.
Grinstein-Weiss is a leading expert and researcher in the asset-building field and is an influential voice in the design of innovative savings policies, both in the United States and internationally. She is the leading researcher of the Refund to Savings initiative, the largest savings experiment in the United States, and is principal investigator of the first federal evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s GEAR UP program. Grinstein-Weiss also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as a research associate for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and as a fellow for the Center of Community Capital. She previously was an associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Molly Metzger, PhD, is an assistant professor.
Metzger’s research explores the ways in which public policies interact with social structure and developmental factors to shape cities and lives. Metzger’s work focuses on affordable housing policy, racial segregation and the deconcentration of poverty in American cities. Her recent work includes a community-based participatory research project in which she partnered with residents of the Julia C. Lathrop Homes, the last major public housing on Chicago’s north side.
Her work also extends to other areas of social welfare, including education policy and early childhood development. She has contributed to the growing body of literature demonstrating the long-term health benefits of breastfeeding, particularly with regard to preventing obesity. And while working at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies, she managed data collection for an early-childhood intervention based at 35 Chicago Head Start sites. She has experience with Chicago’s urban poverty as a researcher, service provider and citizen and uses that experience in her research and teaching.

David A. Patterson, Silver Wolf (Adelv unegv Waya), PhD, is an assistant professor.
Patterson has provided clinical, addiction-related services for more than 15 years and currently is an associated researcher with the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions and the Buffalo Center for Social Research. His research focuses on barriers to best-practice implementation in human services organizations, specifically investigating worker and organizational characteristics and their roles in adopting proven practices. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has funded his research. Patterson’s other research focus is on Native American health and wellness, particularly on issues related to college retention. Some of his funded work has been directed toward adapting a Native American-specific HIV/AIDS risk reduction intervention. He is an Indigenous HIV/AIDS Research Training fellow and collaborates with University of Washington’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute.

Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, PhD, is an assistant professor.
Rivera-Núñez teaches courses in the Master of Public Health program.
Previously, Rivera-Núñez completed post-doctoral training with the National Academies Research Associateship Program at the Environmental Protection Agency in Cincinnati. As part of this training, she examined exposure assessment tools related to drinking-water contaminants. This research has applications to epidemiological studies of adverse health outcomes. She also participated in forums to provide technical assistance on community based-efforts. In addition, she was part of a team examining how best to evaluate cumulative risk at the community level. At the University of Michigan, Rivera-Núñez was awarded a National Cancer Institute fellowship under the Comprehensive Minority Biomedical Branch to investigate urinary arsenic species as biomarkers of arsenic exposure through drinking water. She also participated in air pollution research projects such as “Air Pollution, Inflammation and Preterm Birth in Mexico City.” Rivera-Núñez is interested in the temporal and spatial variation of environmental contaminants and the effects of those contaminants on women’s and children’s health.

Jean-Francois Trani, PhD, is an assistant professor.
Previously, Trani was a senior research associate at the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London. His work lies at the intersection of mental health, disability, vulnerability and poverty, with a focus on conducting research that informs policy and service design for individuals living in conflict-affected fragile states and other low-income countries, such as Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Sudan (Darfur). For example, Trani's research has contributed to the policy papers of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan regarding disability issues. Trani's research has been funded by a number of organizations, including the U.K. AID/Department for International Development, European Commission, U.N. Mine Action Center in Afghanistan, Handicap International, UNICEF and the World Bank.

School of Law

Goldburn P. Maynard Jr., JD, is a visiting assistant professor of law.
Maynard is a rising scholar in tax law and trusts and estates. His co-authored article in the Tulane Law Review, “To Pay or Delay: The Nominee’s Dilemma under Collection Due Process,” won the John Minor Wisdom Award for best lead article in the volume. Before joining the law faculty, he served as an estate tax attorney for the Internal Revenue Service in Oakland, Calif. He also was a tax associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Chicago. At the University of Chicago Law School, he was a staff member of the University of Chicago Law Review. He served as an intern at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and at the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago. Following law school, he earned his LLM in taxation with honors from Northwestern University School of Law. Maynard is a member of the Illinois bar.

Elizabeth Sepper, JD, is an associate professor of law.
Sepper is a health law scholar whose work explores the interaction of morality, professional ethics and law in medicine. Her most recent article, forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, challenges the standard account of the role of conscience in health-care delivery, which limits conscience to medical providers who refuse to deliver controversial treatments. She also has published in the areas of human rights, women’s rights and international health law. Her articles have appeared in the Texas International Law Journal, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law and New York University Law Review. She has clerked for Judge Marjorie Rendell of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced at Human Rights Watch and at New York University School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

Andrew F. Tuch, SJD, is an associate professor of law.
Tuch is an accomplished scholar in the fields of corporate law, securities regulation and the regulation of financial institutions, especially investment banks. His scholarship has appeared in the Virginia Law Review, as well as in peer-reviewed journals in the United Kingdom and Australia. His article “Multiple Gatekeepers” was named among the "Ten Best Corporate and Securities Articles of 2011" by Corporate Practice Commentator. He earned an SJD degree from Harvard Law School, where his research was twice awarded the Victor Brudney Prize for the Best Paper in Corporate Governance. Tuch clerked for Justice G.L. Davies of the Queensland Court of Appeal, practiced corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and London, and was a member of the law faculty at the University of Sydney. Tuch is a member of the New York bar and is qualified to practice in Australia, England and Wales.

Push for corporate board diversity set to increase in the U.S. due to European pressure

Jessica Martin — 2013-04-22 00:00:00

As Germany prepares to mandate quotas for female participation on major corporate boards, the United States is feeling the pressure to improve board diversity, says Hillary A. Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law at Washington University School of Law.

Sale

After years of little growth, the percentage of women directors on U.S. Boards remains at 12 percent.

"There are a lot of studies out there showing that diverse groups perform better, and there’s no reason to think that isn’t also true in the boardroom. I’ve certainly heard directors say it. I’ve also heard CEOs say it."

Sale is currently working with colleagues at the Olin Business School to research the best way to measure the impact of diversity on a corporate board.

http://youtu.be/YcOj9BV9Sys

Hillary Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the growing pressure to improve diversity on corporate boards. Sale works with DirectWomen, a national program designed to develop and position an elite group of exceptional senior women lawyers for service as directors of major U.S. Corporations.

She also holds a leadership role with DirectWomen, a national program designed to develop and position an elite group of exceptional senior women lawyers for service as directors of major U.S. Corporations.

Increasing surveillance a dangerous reaction to Boston bombings, says privacy law expert

2013-04-23 00:00:00

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, some people are calling for an increase in surveillance cameras throughout U.S. cities.

“This would be a mistake,” says Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It would be dangerous to our civil liberties, and it would be bad policy.”

Richards

Richards gives his personal reaction to the Boston bombings and offers three reasons why increasing the number of surveillance cameras would be an unnecessary response to recent events in a CNN opinion piece, "Surveillance State No Answer to Terror."

“Being constantly observed might make us feel slightly safer, but this would be only an illusion of safety,” he writes.

“History has shown repeatedly that broad government surveillance powers inevitably get abused – whether by the Gestapo, the Stasi, or our own FBI, which engaged in unlawful surveillance and blackmail of ‘dangerous’ people like Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Read the full article at http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/opinion/richards-surveillance-state/index.html.

Design Thinking seminar April 24 in Kansas City to help spur business innovation

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-04-18 00:00:00

What happens when you put some highly creative architecture professors in a room with some intensely quantitative business professors and ask them to solve a problem?

Design thinking.

This hybrid approach to problem solving is the focus of a new interdisciplinary executive education seminar taught by faculty members from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School and the College of Architecture.

“Design Thinking and Innovation,” presented in cooperation with KC America’s Creative Crossroads, will be held from 7-9 a.m., Wednesday, April 24 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City.

The event is free and open to the public.

Sam Chun, PhD, senior lecturer in management practices at Olin, and Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture/Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, will discuss simple tools to accelerate visualization and enhance one’s ability to express creatively, communicate new ideas and spur innovation.

“We are taking advantage of how different disciplines within the university approach and solve problems,” says Panos Kouvelis, PhD, senior associate dean and director of executive programs at Olin.

“Design thinking has been popularized as a transformational way to solve problems,” he says. “Architects and artists approach problems in a very creative way. At the same time we would like to approach problems in a creative way, but within a business context. We want to find the synergy between the two ways of thinking.”

“Design is a process for discovering innovative solutions to solve complex problems within dynamic contexts,” Lindsey says. “Business is nothing if not dynamic, and innovation is the competitive landscape.”

For more information on the event, visit the executive education site.

Washington University in St. Louis offers its highly-ranked EMBA program in Kansas City. Launched in 2010, the program addresses key management issues such as developing organizational leadership; operating strategically in global and emerging markets; creating a culture of innovation; and generating sustainable, profitable growth.

An information session will be held May 2 and a program preview June 15. For more information, visit olin.wustl.edu/executiveeducation/EMBA/Pages/default.aspx.

New Olin finance program provides keys to the global economy from U.S. to Asia

2013-04-22 00:00:00

Two degrees are better than one in the field of finance, especially when earned from two leading business schools – Washington University in St. Louis and Singapore Management University (SMU).

Singapore Management University

The new Global Master of Finance Dual Degree program is designed to meet the needs of today’s global marketplace with specialized skills in finance and a unique opportunity to study U.S. and Asian markets firsthand.

Students earn a Master of Science in Finance degree from Washington University’s Olin Business School and a Master of Science in Applied Finance degree from SMU in the joint program.

The 14-month program spans the globe with two summer semesters at Washington University in St. Louis and two semesters on the campus of Singapore Management University.

The curriculum includes immersion courses in New York and Washington, D.C., that explore U.S. financial markets, policymaking, legislative processes, enforcement agencies, and the Federal Reserve. These courses are offered in collaboration with Brookings Executive Education, part of the Brookings Institution and managed by Olin Business School.

“Olin Business School has joined forces with Singapore Management University to educate a new generation of risk managers, research analysts and investment decision makers,” says Mahendra Gupta, PhD, Olin’s dean and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management.

“Individually, each of our schools offers superior preparation for careers in finance. Together, we are greater than the sum of our parts. Students will gain a big-picture understanding of the worldwide financial industry, along with innovative theories and practices.”

The Financial Times has ranked Olin’s Master of Science in Finance program No. 2 in the United States.

Founded in 2000, SMU is one of the youngest universities in the world to have earned a double AACSB accreditation for its business and accounting programs and the prestigious EQUIS accreditation.

Like Olin, its mission is to create and disseminate knowledge, advance scholarly research, enhance leadership and promote global corporate citizenship.

Information session Wednesday, April 24

A Global Master of Finance information session will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 24, in Danforth University Center, Room 234. The $100 application fee is waived for WUSTL student applicants.

For more information, contact the Specialized Master’s Programs admissions office at (314) 935-8469 or nlemley@wustl.edu.

Olin accelerated program gives students a jump-start on master’s degree in finance

2013-04-23 00:00:00

Rising seniors can start earning credits toward a master of science in finance this July with the launch of a master of finance accelerated program from Olin Business School’s Specialized Master’s Programs.

Olin’s master’s in finance – ranked No. 2 in the U.S. by the Financial Times – is a rigorous and comprehensive graduate program that offers in-depth training in securities research, asset management, derivative pricing, fixed income and corporate finance for students pursuing specialized finance careers.

The program attracts applicants with excellent quantitative skills and a broad range of academic experience in the areas of finance, economics, engineering and mathematics.

To view the complete curriculum, visit the Olin website.

Information session Thursday, April 25

The Specialized Master’s Programs staff is hosting an information session for all students interested in the master of finance accelerated program at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 25, in Danforth University Center, Room 233. The GMAT/GRE exam will be waived for summer 2013 WUSTL student applicants. The $100 application fee will be waived for WUSTL students.

Qdoba Mexican Grill will be served and prizes, including $20 Campus Bookstore gift certificates, will be raffled. RSVP to Nate Quest at natequest@wustl.edu.

For more information, contact the Specialized Master’s Programs admissions team at (314) 935-8469 or nlemley@wustl.edu.

Make music with student-created app

Melody Walker — 2013-04-18 00:00:00

It’s called Sketch-A-Song. It’s free, and it’s designed to make music creation accessible to everyone — even people without formal musical training.

The Sketch-A-Song app in use.

Jacob Zax, a senior majoring in political science, and classmate Adam Segal, an English literature major, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, are members of a team of seven friends who devoted last summer to creating the app.

The men all attended Denver East High School in Colorado and are pursuing degrees ranging from computer science to English at different universities. Zax answered questions about Sketch-A-Song via email, three days after their app’s soft launch. The app allows users to touch buttons to choose musical elements, such as horns or guitars, along with the timing for including such sounds in a song.

Q: Can you tell me a bit more about your friends and co-creators?

A: The group of co-creators are best friends from high school. We were very close in high school and have stayed best friends throughout college. Towards the end of last year, we decided to forgo internships to spend one last summer together working on a project.

Q: How long have you been working on this app?

A: A total of nine months. We worked full time for two months during the summer and almost released when we returned to school. We weren’t quite ready though, and after a lot of deliberation, decided to make the finishing touches to the app over winter break (making progress during the semester was unrealistic due to our other commitments). Those improvements ended up taking us into the start of this semester, but they’ve made a big difference in the app’s quality.

Q: What was inspiration for Sketch-A-Song?

A: Adam and I took a class called the Hatchery (a course that helps students develop business plans) in the Washington University (Olin) Business School in the spring of 2012, which was designed to nurture students' entrepreneurial ideas and ambitions. While our project for that class was quite different from Sketch-A-Song, the experience helped inspire us to commit our summer to our own venture and convince our friends to join us in starting a business. As a group, we had a passionate collective belief that we could learn a ton from working with one another towards a common goal. Also, my friends are just inspiring people — and the thought of sharing a summer with them in such a meaningful way was exhilarating from Day One.

As for the concept of music creation, all credit goes to our co-creator Zack Sulsky, who is a great musician and music theorist. He was the one who convinced us that we should aspire to creating a product that would allow anyone to make pleasing music.

Q: Do you plan to make money with the app?

A: We made the app because we wanted to give people a way to express themselves musically that was fun, intuitive and accessible. We explicitly chose not to include advertisements because we didn’t want to detract from the simplicity of the creation process or the app’s overall aesthetic.

However, we do have in-app-purchases as a way to unlock additional content and while our NoteNotes (that’s our name for the in-game currency) are moderately priced, and can also be earned by making songs, we do expect to make some money as people become familiar with the game and want to explore additional instruments and sketchpads.

Q: What are you guys going to do this summer?

A: As graduating seniors we have a variety of plans, jobs and traveling to look forward to. I will personally be taking the lead on promoting Sketch-A-Song before exploring other career opportunities. Adam will be training to become a teacher with Teach For America. While the team is headed in many different professional directions, our commitment to Sketch-A-Song will continue to unite us.

Visit Sketch-A-Song’s website and download the app for iOS or Android devices.

Executive chef at Knight Center wins silver medal at international competition

2013-04-18 00:00:00

With true passion and expert knowledge in the kitchen, Aramark Chef Shane Brassel won the silver medal at the International Association of Conference Centres (IACC) Copper Skillet Competition. Brassel is the executive chef at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center.

Representing the United States, Brassel competed last month against chefs from across the world including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. To qualify for the international competition, Brassel won the IACC Copper Skillet competition for the U.S. in January.

"We have great pride in Chef Brassel and his accomplishment. To prepare a winning dish under such great constraints is such a testament to not only his skill, but his creativity," said Eugene Castellitto, general manager for ARAMARK at the Knight Center. "We're glad he's on our team."

Participating chefs are given a mystery basket of ingredients that includes fresh produce, grains and three proteins such as meat, fish or poultry. Brassel's winning dish was a duet of Dijon-crusted pork tenderloin medallion with natural jus and pan-seared beef filet, accompanied by a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer sauce, buttered poached asparagus and a Southwestern bean relish.

Brassel was born and raised in St. Louis and developed a culinary interest at a young age. A graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., he has honed his epicurean skills at a variety of hotels and restaurants, including the Ritz Carlton, Dallas Omni, Inter-Continental and Chase Park Plaza Hotel. Brassel joined Aramark in 2007 and has served as executive chef at the Knight Center since 2010.

In its 10th year, the Copper Skillet competition is designed to highlight the skills and artistry of the chefs working at IACC member locations. Considered a thought leader in the meetings industry, IACC is committed to providing an outstanding conference experience.

President signs bill to limit STOCK Act’s web-based publication of employees’ financial information

2013-04-15 00:00:00

On Monday, April 15, President Obama signed legislation rolling back the disclosure requirements of the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, which would have required creation of a searchable, sortable database for the annual financial interest forms of 28,000 executive branch employees as well as highly paid Congressional staff. These forms contain detailed information about employees’ assets, outside income and gifts.

Clark

Former national security officials raised security concerns about this publication requirement. Current employees filed a lawsuit, resulting in a federal court ruling that publishing such information on the web would violate employees’ right to privacy. At the end of March, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) issued a report critical of the plan to post employees’ information on the web.

“Both the court and NAPA recognized that federal employees have a legitimate right to privacy regarding their personal financial information,” says Kathleen Clark, JD, government ethics expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Clark has co-authored a chapter on the STOCK Act in the forthcoming International Handbook on Transparency. The NAPA quoted from Clark’s chapter in its report.

“The STOCK Act would have established an unprecedented level of transparency for federal government officials,” Clark said. “It would have created a tool -- a searchable, sortable database -- that could help nongovernment organizations track financial trends among federal employees.” With this new legislation, Congress drastically reduced the number of officials whose forms will be published on the internet and removed the mandate for a searchable, sortable database.

Senate votes to limit STOCK Act’s web-based publication of employees’ financial information

2013-04-12 00:00:00

On Thursday, April 11, the Senate voted to roll back the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, limiting the web-based publication of government employees’ personal financial information. This action comes in response to a federal court ruling that such publication violated employees’ right to privacy and a critical report by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

“The court recognized that the federal employees have a legitimate right to privacy regarding their personal financial information and ruled that the federal government failed to identify a compelling government interest that would justify posting that personal information on the internet,” says Kathleen Clark, JD, government ethics expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The STOCK Act would require Internet posting of the annual financial interest forms for 28,000 executive branch employees. Financial interest forms detail information about assets, outside income and gifts. The Senate bill would limit such posting to elected officials, congressional candidates, and Senate-confirmed presidential appointees.

Clark

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recently issued a report mandated by Congress on the STOCK Act. The report includes Clark’s findings on the STOCK Act:

“For legislators the primary function of these forms is political accountability: assisting the public in assessing whether the financial interests of elected legislators are politically acceptable. Legislators stand for reelection on a regular basis, and their constituents can take into account whether the financial interests of a member (or a nonincumbent candidate) are acceptable when deciding how to vote,” writes Clark in a chapter on the STOCK Act in the forthcoming International Handbook on Transparency.

To read the complete NAPA report visit:
http://www.napawash.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/STOCKactFinal.pdf

Social entrepreneurs win share of $164,000 at annual innovation competition

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-04-11 00:00:00

The winners of the eighth annual YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition (SEIC) and its $164,000 in awards have been announced.

Mary Butkus

Sister Joan Kuester (left), executive director of the Daughters of Charity Foundation, and Jill McGuire (right), executive director of the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, talk with Jessica Hentoff of the Circus Harmony Flying Trapeze Center. Hentoff won $30,000 from each organization.

Winning teams represented community and Washington University in St. Louis social entrepreneurs. Their social venture ideas ranged widely, covering youth, teens, homelessness and collaboration among all types of social enterprises.

"This year’s social entrepreneurs came up with lots of ideas and concepts that were new and fresh for St. Louis," said Ken Harrington, director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at WUSTL.

"All the finalists will have high impact on our community as they move forward," he said. "We are particularly excited about how past and current competitors are collaborating to build a community culture supporting social entrepreneurship. These are exciting times in St. Louis.”

Harrington announced the following awards April 10, selected from a pool of seven finalists:

The YouthBridge Community Foundation award of $35,000 to Independent Youth, a nonprofit organization that educates teens on entrepreneurship by offering unique programs and resources.
Daughters of Charity Foundation of St. Louis award of $30,000 and the Regional Arts Commission award of $30,000 to Circus Harmony Flying Trapeze Center, where men, women and children will be able to increase confidence and life skills using circus performance experiences.
The Lutheran Foundation of St. Louis award of $25,000 to ArchCity Defenders Inc., a nonprofit legal organization that works with numerous social services groups to provide comprehensive criminal and civic legal services for homeless and other disadvantaged people.
The Skandalaris Award of $25,000 to GoodMap, an easy-to-use website where social agencies can collaborate to achieve greater impact including helping people find, organize and share information about community resources.
In addition, awards were given for the best score for measuring social value and best venture supported by students.

Law firm and Skandalaris sponsor Polsinelli Shughart will provide up to three $3,000 prizes of in-kind legal services to teams in this year’s competition.

The YouthBridge SEIC started in 2005 as a partnership between the Skandalaris Center and the YouthBridge Community Foundation. Since its inception, the competition has awarded more than $1 million in cash and in-kind prizes to 36 social ventures, including an annual $5,000 student prize. More than 85 percent of ventures that have won awards still are operating.

The YouthBridge Community Foundation partners with donors to help charities, especially those focused on children, become financially sound through leadership, grants and donor services.

The Skandalaris Center is a cross-campus and communitywide initiative serving students in all schools and degree programs at the university and the St. Louis region. Sponsors of the Skandalaris Center include RubinBrown, the Regional Chamber, Polsinelli Shughart and Lopata, Flegel & Company.

Are human genes patentable?

Jessica Martin — 2013-04-11 00:00:00

On April 15, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, a case that could answer the question, “Under what conditions, if any, are isolated human genes patentable?” Kevin Emerson Collins, JD, patent law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, believes that layered uncertainties make this case an unusually difficult case in which to predict the outcome.

During the early 1990s, Myriad Genetics made important scientific discoveries related to mutations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, which are biomarkers for increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Based on this work, Myriad sought, and obtained, patent protection for “isolated” DNA molecules that embody these sequences.

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Myriad will determine whether Myriad’s gene patents are valid or, alternatively, whether they were improperly issued from the beginning.

“The legal controversy centers on patent law’s ‘products of nature’ doctrine—a doctrine that prevents the patenting of newly made products that do not display a ‘marked difference’ from naturally occurring products,” Collins says.

“A perfectly circular section cut out of a leaf of a newly discovered plant may be technically new at the time that it is first made -- and it may be socially useful if the leaf contains chemicals that are natural wound healers, but it’s likely an unpatentable product of nature because there is no marked difference between the newly created product and the naturally occurring product.

http://youtu.be/IVzBmAlpB8M

Kevin Emerson Collins, patent law expert and professor of law at Washington University inSt. Louis, discusses the Myriad Genetics case before the Supreme Court. This case could answer the question, "Under what conditions, if any, are isolated human genes patentable?" Collins believes that layered uncertainties make this case an unusually difficult case in which to predict the outcome.

“Importantly, the Myriad gene patents only encompass DNA molecules in an ‘isolated’ state, separate from the remainder of the chromosome in which they exist in a human body, and they thus describe molecules that were technically new when Myriad first made them.”

The question before the Court is whether the structural and functional differences between naturally occurring DNA molecules and DNA molecules in an isolated state is sufficiently significant to constitute a “marked difference” and to sanction the patenting of the isolated DNAs.

Behind the legal controversy is an economic controversy that may (or may not) influence the Supreme Court’s pronouncement on the products of nature doctrine. “The social costs of the exclusive rights to inventions granted by patents are normally justified by the incentives that patents provide for self-interested entities to invest in research and development and generate the socially valuable inventions,” Collins says.

However, under some circumstances, there are legitimate concerns that the incentive-based benefits of patents may not outweigh these costs.

“One function of the products of nature doctrine is to ensure that the basic tools of scientific and technological work are not constrained by claims of patent rights and remain free for all to use as inputs into future research,” says Collins.

“To the extent that isolated genes are essential technological and scientific building blocks, the costs of Myriad’s gene patents in the form of slower innovation in the future may be so great that they will outweigh the benefits of the patent-induced incentives that speed up the creation of the isolated genes themselves.”

The verdict

Collins says it is difficult to predict how the Supreme Court will decide this case because of three compounded uncertainties.

First, the Supreme Court has to date not offered a clear legal framework for identifying products of nature, so it is unclear how high a hurdle the markedly different standard will prove to be.

Second, it is unclear how strongly the Court’s legal determination will be influenced by the underlying economic concerns about the privatization of the building blocks of technological progress.

Third, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals—the court that authored the opinion below in Myriad—is not likely to lead to much of any deference.

“Recent Federal Circuit patent decisions have been poorly received by the Supreme Court,” Collins says. “The Federal Circuit upheld the patentablity of these genes, but, given recent history, this is not much of an indicator as to Supreme Court will handle this case.”

Filibuster abuse destabilizes government and is unconstitutional

2013-04-11 00:00:00

Filibuster has become a popular tool for legislators. “Republicans have held the U.S. Senate hostage despite their minority status and losses in the last election,” says Merton Bernstein, emeritus professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Indeed, the threat of a filibuster enables the minority to exact concessions that the electorate had already rejected in several elections. This sabotage of the democratic process not only shuts down the legislative process, short circuits the confirmation of presidential nominees, but also threatens large foreign purchases of U.S. bonds that lower interest rates for federal, state and business borrowing.”

Bernstein

Bernstein, former counsel to U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey and Legislative Assistant to Senator Wayne L. Morse, says that the supermajority requirements of Senate Rule XXII, which guides filibusters, are unconstitutional and must be fixed.

“Rule XXII’s supermajority requirements violate the command of Article 1, section 3 and its successor, the Seventeenth Amendment, that ‘each Senator shall have one vote,’" Bernstein says.

“Moreover, Article V of the Constitution, governing its amendment, provides ‘that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage [vote] in the Senate.’ The one-vote and equal suffrage provisions make clear that each senator's vote must be the equal of every other senator's vote, otherwise the votes of senators in a successful minority would be worth more than the votes of senators in a defeated majority. Thus, Rule XXII's two supermajority requirements, to impose cloture and to amend the supermajority provision, violate the Constitution's one vote per senator provision.”

Read more in Bernstein’s recent Huffington Post piece, “Senate Filibuster Riot Destabilizes Government, Imperils Foreign Purchase of U.S. Bonds, Violates the Constitution,” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/merton-bernstein/filibusters-run-riot-dest_b_3054097.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share

Motivational workplace award programs not as effective as thought

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-04-08 00:00:00

Think having an “Employee of the Month” program will motivate your workforce? Think carefully.

Lamar Pierce

Award programs actually may be less effective at motivating employees than previously thought, finds new research from Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School and Harvard Business School.

Lamar Pierce, PhD, associate professor of strategy at Olin, along with his colleagues, doctoral student Timothy Gubler and Ian Larkin, PhD, assistant professor at Harvard, finds that even simple awards programs can have much broader and complex implications for employee behavior.

Their study, “The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence From the Field,” is a Harvard Business School working paper available on the Social Science Research Network.

The researchers used field data from an attendance award program implemented at one of five industrial laundry plants.

They found that awards programs can induce unintended consequences that can reduce the net value of the program.

The researchers show that two types of unintended consequences limit gains from the reward program. First, employees game the program, improving timeliness only when eligible for the award, and strategically calling in sick to retain eligibility.

Second, employees with perfect pre-program attendance or high productivity suffered a 6 percent to 8 percent productivity decrease after program introduction, suggesting they were demotivated by awards for good behavior they already exhibited.

Overall, the results suggest the award program decreased plant productivity by 1.4 percent, and that positive effects from awards are accompanied by more complex employee responses that limit program effectiveness. While awards programs can be powerful tools for motivating employees, companies must think carefully about the unintended consequences that can cripple their efficacy.

The paper can be found at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2215922.

Sherraden moderates panel discussion on poverty alleviation at Clinton Global Initiative University

Leslie Gibson McCarthy — 2013-04-06 00:00:00

Joe Angeles

Michael Sherraden (right) moderates the panel discussion on poverty alleviation. Law student Kailey Burger is at left.

Michael Sherraden, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, moderated a panel discussion April 6 at the sixth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U).

The session was titled “Poverty and Promise in America’s Rust Belt” and was held in Umrath Hall on the Danforth Campus.

Sherraden, founder and director of the Brown School’s Center for Social Development (CSD) and known for his pioneering work on asset building for low-income people, moderated a panel that included Karen Freeman-Wilson, mayor of the city of Gary, Ind.; Kailey Burger, a third-year student at Washington University School of Law; and Annis Stubbs, executive director, Teach For America-Detroit.

"This was an incredible opportunity for the university community and I was honored to be a part of it," Sherraden said. "The energy on campus — both at this session and throughout the weekend — was palpable."

The 75-minute session included some viable suggestions for the approximately 200 students who packed into Umrath Lounge. The CGI U partipants heard the panel talk about everything from how to inspire volunteers, to how they overcame challenges such as funding and working in a neighborhood that might look different and feel different than anything they’ve experienced before.

One suggestion came from Burger, who returned to the WUSTL campus from an internship in New York, talking about her project, the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy projects. Burger stressed to the students the importance of having a plan.

“You have to come up with a real plan that’s going to work,” Burger said. “The last thing residents want is to hear a few ideas, take them out to lunch, then you leave. … You need to say, ‘Here’s what I see us doing together.’ ”

Burger also said her group found focus groups helpful.

“You want to make sure you’re not just providing services, but providing them in a way they feel tied to it and are growing the community together.”

Wilson-Freeman addressed the question of inspiring a group to work together.

“It’s one thing for me to jump off a cliff, because my name was on the ballot, but it’s another thing for 15 people to jump off with you,” she said. “So I tried to create a sense of responsibility. I told them ‘all of us came from the city and we were able to build lives based on the fact we went to public schools here; we had adults who made investments in us and we achieved success. Who’s doing that now?'

“I need you to help me and create the same – or better – atmosphere that we grew up in so we can create the same opportunities.”

After the panel forum, students held table discussions to help put the ideas into action as Sherraden and the panelists circulated among them.

Prior to the session, two CGI U projects were honored,including a WUSTL-based project called D*Serves (Design Serves), in which Brown School student De Andrea Nichols was called out for her project.

Q&A: Kurt Dirks

Neil Schoenherr — 2012-04-08 00:00:00

Whitney Curtis

Kurt Dirks, PhD, senior associate dean of programs and Bank of America Professor of Managerial Leadership at Olin Business School, chats in his office with second-year MBA student Charlie Felker.

Dirks, who joined the faculty in 2001, studies organizational behavior, trust in workplace relationships, leadership and teams.

"We do a great job at Olin in training our students in the functional areas of finance, marketing, strategy and accounting," Dirks says. "We also, however, wanted to help students think about how to use those skills to have an impact as a leader, and how to bring their own values and character to life in their work."

Where did your interest in trust in the workplace originate?

I’ve been studying trust in the workplace since 1995. At that time, there was very little work on the topic within academic circles.

Trust is a topic that is both timeless and timely. Issues of trust and character have been cited over the centuries as critical attributes for leaders.

It’s particularly timely given that trust in leaders of almost all sectors — ranging from business to government to education — are at record lows.

What are some things that people can do to improve trust in their own workplace environments?

What researchers in my field have determined is that there are three attributes that people look for when they determine whether they trust someone, at least in a workplace context: competence, character and caring.

Often, people have a good grasp on two of those attributes, but not the third. Concentrating on ensuring that you consistently display all three areas is a one way to convey trustworthiness at work.

What are some of the negative effects of a lack of trust in the workplace?

That’s an important question. We see a number of things that happen when trust is absent. One is that for organizations or teams to be successful, people must partially set aside personal goals to work together toward some common goal. When trust is absent, people focus on their personal goals or on protecting their own interests and, as a result, the organization splinters.

The second, as anyone who has ever worked in a situation where trust is absent knows, is that the situation can be very stressful. This has both a personal cost and cost for the group.

We see these effects across a range of contexts from health care to financial services to sports. As an example, one of the studies I did as part of my dissertation was on NCAA basketball teams, studying how much teams trusted their coach and how that might impact team success. We found, accounting for a large range of alternative predictors, trust in the leader (the coach), had a substantial impact on team winning percentage; the impact was of the same magnitude as the talent of its players.

Are good leaders born or can they be made?

That’s a classic question for the field. The answer is that it’s both. Research indicates that some people are born with the attributes that give them natural advantages at being a leader across situations. At the same time, there is no doubt that individuals can develop into more effective leaders.

At Olin, we tackle the issue of leadership in a few ways. We help people develop those key skills that are required for good leadership. In addition, we also help students and executives recognize their natural strengths and how they can adapt those strengths to be successful in situations they face in their careers.

You co-teach the popular Defining Moments course with Stuart Bunderson (PhD, the George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance at Olin). What is this course and what are students getting out of it?

We do a great job at Olin in training our students in the functional areas of finance, marketing, strategy and accounting. We also, however, wanted to help students think about how to use those skills to have an impact as a leader, and how to bring their own values and character to life in their work.

Stuart and I believe one of the most effective ways to achieve this goal is for students to hear directly from notable leaders about their own leadership journey, the role that personal values and character have played in their career and the extent to which it’s possible to be successful and maintain your own values.

This is the second year of the course. We’ve had leaders from a variety of different types of organizations helping our students think about how to chart their own careers while not sacrificing their individual value systems. Students have told us that this is a very helpful set of issues for them to consider as they leave Washington University to launch or re-launch their careers.

You have received a number of teaching awards in your time at Olin. What do you like best about teaching?

Most faculty, including me, love teaching for the ability to positively impact a student’s life. For example, it’s very rewarding when I hear from former students about how a class impacted their thinking and contributed to their success, broadly speaking.

Olin is known for its high quality teaching by faculty and the dedication of our staff to students. It’s a great time to be at Olin — all of our programs are doing very well because of the commitment of our faculty and staff.

What research projects are you working on right now?

Much of my current work continues on the topic of trust. One area that my colleagues and I are focused on is the repair of trust. In other words, when trust is broken, is it possible to repair it? What are the dynamics involved?

It’s been a fascinating topic for us and an area of great interest. Another issue that my colleagues and I are looking at is whether it is possible to accelerate trust more quickly in a relationship. For example, we’ve studied this in the United States Military Academy where cadets are training to be officers in the U.S. Army.

The idea was that the more quickly cadets can learn to build trust, the more quickly their units can be effective.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel to give Tyrrell Williams Lecture April 11

2013-04-04 00:00:00

Legomsky

Stephen H. Legomsky, JD, DPhil, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel, plans to discuss the evolving topic of immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis Thursday, April 11.

Legomsky will present the 2012-13 Tyrrell Williams Lecture, “Immigration and the Role of the Government Attorney.”

Legomsky, the John S. Lehmann University Professor, is on leave as a faculty member of Washington University School of Law.

Legomsky is an internationally recognized expert in U.S., comparative and international immigration and refugee law and policy.

Following the Obama administration’s major reform efforts, Legomsky is serving as principal legal adviser to the agency that will implement the central components of the proposed comprehensive immigration legislation.

His lecture is at 4 p.m. April 11 in Anheuser-Busch Hall. Law School Dean Kent Syverud, JD, and U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton, JD, also will make remarks.

The lecture is eligible for one Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit hour for attorneys in Missouri.

In September, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., JD, will give the Tyrrell Williams Lecture. Verrilli argued for the Obama administration in the case of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, in which the U.S. Supreme Court last year generally found the Affordable Care Act constitutional.

For more information about the lecture and Legomsky, visit here.

Supreme Court can strike down DOMA without impacting right to marry, says constitutional law expert

Jessica Martin — 2013-04-02 00:00:00

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.

Magarian

If the Court strikes down DOMA, it will essentially clear the way for states to continue deciding what they want to do on same sex marriage.

"Based on recent evidence, an increasing number of them will opt to legalize same sex marriage," Magarian says.

"If that trend continues, I think the Court in ten or fifteen years will probably hold that the Constitution requires legalized same sex marriage. In this way, the Court can follow the political trend rather than getting out in front."

Levin elected to American Law Institute

2013-04-03 00:00:00

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.

Levin

Levin specializes in administrative law and related public law issues. He has testified before Congress on regulatory reform issues and published numerous articles and book chapters on administrative law topics, including judicial review, rulemaking, legislative reform of the regulatory process, the law of lobbying and legislative ethics. His co-authored books include a casebook, State and Federal Administrative Law, now in its third edition, and a student text, Administrative Law and Process in a Nutshell, now in its fifth edition.

Levin has been active in the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice for more than three decades and served as its chair in 2000–01. In 2011, the section recognized Levin for his commitment to its work with the Chair’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. He also served as the ABA’s adviser to the drafting committee to revise the Model State Administrative Procedure Act. In addition, he is a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently chairs its Judicial Review Committee.

Levin joins a number of other Washington University law professors who are members of the ALI, including: Professors Susan Frelich Appleton (who also holds the office of secretary and serves on the ALI Council); Kathleen Brickey; Kathleen Clark; Michael Greenfield; Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff; Daniel Keating; Pauline Kim; Stephen Legomsky; Charles McManis; Kimberly Norwood; Laura Rosenbury; Leila Nadya Sadat; Hillary Sale; Dean Kent Syverud; and Dean Emeritus Dorsey D. Ellis Jr.

Founded in 1923, ALI produces influential Restatements of the Law, model statutes, and Principles of Law. Its publications are distributed widely and often are cited in court opinions. The organization defines its mission as “promoting the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs; securing the better administration of justice; and encouraging and carrying on scholarly and scientific legal work.”

ALI honors alumnus

The Hon. William H. Webster, JD ’49, will receive the ALI’s 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.

Webster

The medal is named in honor of Judge Henry Friendly, a former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, who has been referred to as “the most powerful legal reasoner in American legal history.” Past recipients of the Friendly Medal include retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the late New York University School of Law constitutional law scholar Ronald Dworkin.

A Washington University School of Law National Council member, Webster is a retired partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in Washington, D.C. He previously directed the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri; and was a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In addition, Webster served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in World War II and the Korean War. Among his many accolades are the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Security Medal. He currently serves as chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Additionally, Washington University has presented Webster with an Alumni Citation for contributions to the field of law, the William Greenleaf Eliot Award, and an honorary degree. At the law school, he has received the Distinguished Law Alumni Award, and the Webster Society scholarship program for law students committed to public service is named in his honor.

Babcock to lecture on negotiations and the gender divide

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-04-02 00:00:00

Linda Babcock, PhD, co-author of Women Don’t Ask: Negotiations and the Gender Divide, will discuss that topic during a lecture at 9 a.m. Friday, April 12, in Simon Hall, Room 106.

Linda Babcock

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.

The event is open to the university community, but space is limited and reservations are required. To confirm attendance for the talk and a continental breakfast beginning at 8:30 a.m., contact Sandy Vaughn at svaughn@wustl.edu or (314) 935-6707.

Babcock also will give a lecture to faculty and doctoral students Thursday, April 11, titled “What Do We Know About Gender and Negotiation? New Evidence on How and When Women Do Ask” and join a panel discussion with William P. Bottom, PhD, the Joyce and Howard Wood Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior; Hillary Anger Elfenbein, PhD, professor of organizational behavior; and Judi McLean Parks, PhD, the Reuben C. and Anne Carpenter Taylor Professor of Organizational Behavior.

Babcock is the James M. Walton Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University and former acting dean of Carnegie’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management. Her 2003 book on gender and negotiations, co-authored with Sara Laschever, was named by Fortune magazine as one of the 75 smartest business books of all time; it has since been translated into Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Danish.

“One of the challenges confronting junior female faculty in business schools, as well as in other parts of academe, is the small number of senior female faculty who might serve as mentors or role models or co-authors,” says Glenn MacDonald, PhD, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy.

“Female students face similar situations in industries such as investment banking or consulting,” he says. “The Distinguished Women in Economics and Strategy series takes a step in the direction of improvement by bringing some of the most accomplished women in economics or strategy to WUSTL, and making them available to faculty, students and the university community in general. We have had good fortune in attracting scholars who have shown skill and willingness to help our female faculty and students in their professional development.”

Babcock is the founder and faculty director of the Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society and is a member of the Russell Sage Foundation’s Behavioral Economics Roundtable. She holds several degrees in economics, including a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, the Harvard Business School and the California Institute of Technology. She has received numerous research grants from – and served on the economics review panel for – the National Science Foundation.

Babcock’s research explores gender issues at the interface between economics and psychology, including current work on gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations and on how people react to women when they do negotiate. Her research on women and negotiations appears in top journals across a range of disciplines, including economics, psychology, industrial relations and law. Her work has been discussed in hundreds of newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and abroad and she’s often called upon to discuss her work on radio and television.

Political scientist Cohen to speak April 9

2013-04-03 00:00:00

Cohen

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 Tuesday, April 9, to give a provocatively titled lecture, “Race, Sex and Neoliberalism in the Age of Obama.”

Cohen, PhD, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, is also principal investigator for The Black Youth Project, a website focused on black youth and civic engagement, and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project, which investigates if and how the heightened political environment surrounding the 2008 presidential election will affect the political attitudes and behaviors of individuals in the United States.

Her lecture inaugurates the “Post-Race? Interrogations, Provocations & Disruptions Lecture Series.” A Diversity and Inclusion Grant from the Office of the Provost provides partial funding. Co-sponsors are the Department of Political Science in Arts & Sciences and the Law, Identity & Culture Initiative, an interdisciplinary project co-directed by Adrienne Davis, JD, vice provost and the William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law, and Rebecca Wanzo, PhD, associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies.

For more information on Cohen’s speech, visit here. To learn more about the LIC Initiative, visit the law.wustl.edu site.

The dangers of surveillance - it’s bad, but why?

Jessica Martin — 2013-04-01 00:00:00

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

Richards says that there are two real dangers of surveillance.
“It menaces our intellectual privacy and it gives the watcher a power advantage over the watched, which can be used for blackmail, persuasion, or discrimination,” he says.

Richards’ new article on the topic, “The Danger of Surveillance,” will be published in the next issue of the Harvard Law Review.

Richards says that there are four principles that U.S. law should embody to avoid the dangers of surveillance:

“First, we must recognize that surveillance transcends the public-private divide,” he says.

“Even if we are ultimately more concerned with government surveillance, any solution must grapple with the complex relationships between government and corporate watchers.

“Second, we must recognize that secret surveillance is illegitimate, and prohibit the creation of any domestic surveillance programs whose existence is secret.

“Third, we should recognize that total surveillance is illegitimate and reject the idea that it is acceptable for the government to record all Internet activity without authorization.

“Fourth, we must recognize that surveillance is harmful and should be considered as such in the courts.”

News of the article’s publication has been trending on Twitter. You can read the complete article at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2239412

Three challenges for the First Amendment

Jessica Martin — 2013-04-01 00:00:00

A group of some of the country’s top scholars in First Amendment law recently gathered at Washington University in St. Louis to discuss pressing challenges being faced by the first of our Bill of Rights. Three issues rose to the top of the list for Washington University’s first amendment experts: free expression in a digital age; impaired political debate; and weakened rights of groups.

John Inazu, Greg Magarian and Neil Richards, professors of law at Washington University in St. Louis, comment:

John Inazu
Breakdown of the rights of expressive groups

"One of the most important recent issues is the Supreme Court's unwillingness to recognize the distinctive rights of the First Amendment and the ways in which those rights complement and reinforce one another,” he says.

Inazu

“In a troubling trend, the Court increasingly collapses the rights enumerated in the First Amendment into a framework that emphasizes the moment of expression to the detriment of the background contexts from which expression emerges.

"For example, the Court's doctrine of expressive association focuses on whether groups further some other First Amendment purpose like speech or political or religious activity. Butmany associations exist for other than expressive purposes: dinner groups, bowling leagues, sororities, intramural spots teams, chess clubs. These groups may not appear to be explicitly 'expressive,' but they create a space where relationships foster, ideas form, and thoughts emerge."

Gregory Magarian
Impaired political debate

“First Amendment law plays a large role in enabling robust public political discussion,” he says.

”In particular, expressive freedom can help to generate dynamic political change. Current First Amendment doctrine, however, has many features that flatten political debate and impair dynamic change.

Magarian

“The Supreme Court's campaign finance and government speech doctrines, for example, constrain participation in political discussions while narrowing the range of ideas that those discussions take into account. Meanwhile, the Court ignores important threats to political dissent, such as law enforcement crackdowns on political activists and suppression of speech by nominally private authorities. In an age when our political discourse has grown both more acrimonious and less informative, we sorely need for the Court to reconsider its priorities and revise some essential doctrines.”

Neil Richards
Free expression in a digital age

“Perhaps the most important issue in First Amendment law right now is how we understand free expression in a digital age,” Richards says.

Richards

“The rise of social media, blogs, and other forms of digital expression have coincided with a decline in traditional media, particularly in the economic viability of newspapers. At the same time, our reading habits and other intellectual activities are being tracked, monitored, and analyzed by advertisers and government agencies. The challenge for First Amendment law will be to ensure that our cherished rights of free expression survive the transition to digital form without sacrificing the important ability of citizens to speak, write, and communicate freely and sometimes anonymously without fear of government or social reprisals.”

First Amendment law at Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University School of Law is home to some of the country’s top specialists in First Amendment law. Under the leadership of Inazu, Magarian and Richards, Washington University plans to make the “Washington University First Amendment Roundtable” an annual event.

The importance of groups: First Amendment expert testifies before United States Commission on Civil Rights

Jessica Martin — 2013-03-07 00:00:00

From a small informal social group to a large formal political organization, groups are an important part of American life. The Constitution protects the ability for individuals to form and participate in private groups of their choosing, free from state interference. But at the same time, some groups are in tension with antidiscrimination norms.

“The balance between the liberty of private, noncommercial groups and antidiscrimination principles may never reach a ‘peaceful coexistence,’ ” says John Inazu, JD, first amendment expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

“But our constitutional commitments give us better and worse ways of attempting to strike that balance.

“At the very least, we should expect a constitutional discourse that openly acknowledges the various interests at stake in such decisions,” Inazu says. “ But we should also hope for the robust constitutional protection of pluralism that allows private groups to flourish and holds open the possibility of genuine political difference.

Inazu offered these comments as part of his invited testimony to the United States Commission on Civil Rights briefing on “Peaceful Coexistence? Reconciling Non-discrimination Principles with Civil Liberties.” The bipartisan commission was established by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to inform the development of national civil rights policy and enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws. The briefing is scheduled for March 22 at the commission’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We must extend broad protections not only to formal, political, expressive groups but also to groups that are informal, pre-political, and organized for other than expressive purposes,” Inazu says.

“Without these protections, the grand experiment of permitting genuine political difference comes to an end,” he says. “ Because while some political expressions occur spontaneously, most do not."

View Inazu’s complete testimony here.

Washington University School of Law launches national semester-in-practice externship

2013-03-06 00:00:00

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.

“Washington University School of Law continues to proactively respond to the challenging job market our students face by creating innovative programming like the Semester-in-Practice Externship,” said Kent Syverud, JD, dean and Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor.

“Our students tell us that our existing comprehensive clinic and externship programs are the No. 1 reason they chose Washington University School of Law. Having established our reputation as one of the highest ranked law schools in the nation in clinical education, Washington University School of Law is taking the next logical step by expanding our clinic and externship opportunities coast-to-coast.”

The law school’s clinic and externship programs already in place in Washington, D.C., New York, St. Louis, and abroad are among the most comprehensive programs available, added Robert Kuehn, JD, LLM, associate dean for clinical education and professor of law. However, because of their popularity, these unique opportunities are always in high demand, year after year.

“For the 2012–13 academic year, we were oversubscribed for the 70 available spots in our four existing U.S.-based out-of-town externships, with the D.C. and New York externship courses being particularly popular,” Kuehn said.

“The Semester-in-Practice Externship will open up new opportunities and help address growing student interest in semester-long experiential learning opportunities outside the St. Louis area, including in Chicago and Los Angeles. Students will be able to literally design their own professional practice experience.”

Students in the new Semester-in-Practice Externship will work directly with an attorney/field supervisor and will receive oversight at the law school from a faculty supervisor. The rigorous program will provide direct professional training, while serving students’ diverse geographic interests.

The school’s Career Services Office, which proactively partners with students in their professional development and job placement goals, reports that the current class of first-year Washington University law students has identified more than 40 different cities as their first choice for post-graduation employment.

“The Semester-in-Practice Externship will facilitate students in obtaining critical practical experience in their desired geographic location, which in turn, will be an important part of their professional portfolio in seeking employment post-graduation,” said Janet Laybold, JD, associate dean of admissions, career services and student services. “It also will provide valuable contacts as our students work to expand their professional network during law school.”

Student externship experiences in D.C., New York lead to jobs

Third-year law student Joe Franklin stressed the benefits of the coveted Congressional & Administrative Law Externship, one of the nation’s oldest law school Clinical Education Programs on Capitol Hill.

“There is no substitute for work experience in D.C. if your goal is to be an attorney for the federal government,” said Franklin, who will work for the Food and Drug Administration’s chief counsel’s office after earning a J.D. this May. “The D.C. Clinic provides a combination of relevant coursework, networking opportunities and, most importantly, the chance to work full time in a high-profile agency office. I have no doubt that my work at the FDA during the D.C. clinic let me demonstrate that I would be an excellent candidate for a job with the counsel’s office.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3JtBUgiji4Third-year Washington University School of Law student Joe Franklin discusses his interests in IP law and his experiences in the D.C. clinical education program.

Similarly, recent graduate Ramsey Mesyef, JD ’12, said his experience as one of the first students in the law school’s New York City Regulatory and Business Externship provided critical real-world experience.

“Washington University’s New York externship was an invaluable part of my legal education,” said Mesyef, who is works as an associate, Control Room Compliance, for Goldman Sachs.

“In this competitive market, the combination of real-world legal training and built-in networking opportunities was a true capstone to the law school experience that prepared and equipped me for the job search and the next step in my career,” he continued.

“The faculty facilitated seminar-style, in-depth learning, which encompassed both real-world case studies and guest speakers who breathed life into the subject matter. The exposure to practicing attorneys and practical, skills-oriented curriculum also helped me identify the direction I wanted to take after graduation and put me in an ideal position to pursue it.”

Brief background on experiential learning opportunities

The Semester-in-Practice Externship will further the robust offerings in Washington University School of Law’s Clinical Education Program, which has long been recognized as offering one of the most comprehensive experiential learning opportunities in the nation.

The program’s seven client-based law clinics give Washington University law students the opportunity to serve, with law school faculty, as members of professional teams representing clients in real cases. An additional eight formalized externships offer professional legal opportunities in the St. Louis area, Washington, D.C., New York, Delaware and Virginia.

International externship opportunities are available through the International Justice & Conflict Resolution Field Placement, which focuses on international courts, tribunals and conflict resolution organizations. Additionally, students can pursue summer experiential opportunities throughout the United States and in Africa and other countries, as part of the school’s Summer Public Interest Law Program.

Kuehn noted that the new Semester-in-Practice Externship will greatly expand students’ ability to pursue experiential learning opportunities with a much wider range of legal mentors. “It is a perfect fit with our goal of partnering with our students for their professional success in whatever place they choose to start their careers,” he said.

For more information on Washington University School of Law’s Clinical Education Program’s 15 unique professional practice opportunities, visit http://law.wustl.edu/clinicaled/index.aspx.

REINS Act would severely impair ability to implement laws

2013-03-06 00:00:00

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, said Ronald M. Levin, JD, administrative law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Under the proposed Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, an administrative agency that seeks to issue a major rule would need to obtain an affirmative vote from both the House of Representatives and Senate. At least for now, the two houses have wide ideological differences, Levin said. “The effect of the act would be that no agency could promulgate a major rule on any controversial subject. The administrative process would be severely impaired.”

A regulation with at least a $100 million impact is considered a “major rule.” Several of the rules that will implement the Affordable Care Act will meet this definition.

Levin

Levin recently testified on the REINS Act before the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.

“Under the REINS Act, the dysfunction that now afflicts Congress in the enactment of laws would spread to the implementation of the laws,” he said.

“If the act were enacted this year, this interference with the rulemaking process would affect a Democratic administration, but in the long run we will have both Democratic and Republican presidents, and this act would pose a major barrier to any president’s ability to pursue the policies that he or she was elected to promote,” Levin said.

Read Levin’s full testimony here.

View the complete House hearing at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/29749426. Levin’s testimony begins at 47:30.

Olin students work with St. Louis startup Lockerdome on market and finance research

Melody Walker — 2013-03-05 00:00:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7KIlSgi6q4&feature=share&list=PL547A483CDE937D99Olin Business School students at Washington University in St. Louis are engaged in the vibrant St. Louis startup community through entrepreneurship courses that give them hands-on experience working with innovative new companies like LockerDome. The social network for sports fans and athletes completed a $6 million round of financing and is on an explosive growth track with help from a professor and students at Washington University's business school.

LockerDome CEO and cofounder Gabe Lozano shares some of the credit for attracting investors with students at Olin Business School.

Student teams in one of Olin’s venture consulting courses, taught by Clifford Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship, worked closely with LockerDome’s CFO, Mark Lewis, on market and financial analysis research projects this semester.

Lozano, founder of the popular St. Louis-based startup known as “Facebook for sports,” recently spoke to Olin students on campus.

During their analysis, the students demonstrated that the company was undervalued with higher-than-expected revenue-generating potential.

“We used the students’ comparative analysis in our latest round of financing,” Lozano says. “And as our investors like to say, that might have helped bump up our price a bit.”

LockerDome's team has been on a record-breaking high with unique monthly users surpassing 10 million and successfully completing a $6 million Series A funding round - all in the last two weeks. The company also announced its first strategic parternership for ad sales with USA Today last month.

One of LockerDome’s major investors is Cultivation Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm based in St. Louis and managed by successful entrepreneurs, including Square founder Jim McKelvey and Holekamp. They both serve on LockerDome’s board.

Holekamp's involvement in the St. Louis startup community as an investor, adviser and mentor provides a natural entree for collaboration between the university, entrepreneurs and students.

Meeting and working with successful, young CEOs like Lozano is just one of the advantages that students have in Olin Business School’s entrepreneurial program. A new course launched this semester pairs students with startups housed at T-REx, a tech incubator located in downtown St. Louis.

Classes are held at the T-REx building and students work side by side with entrepreneurs on a variety of projects from marketing plans to financial analysis to product research. Other Olin venture consulting courses offer students the opportunity to travel and work with startups in Hungary and Israel.

Lozano concluded his classroom talk at Olin with a confession that the students may find common among entrepreneurs around the world. He said, while creating a startup, “You get no sleep, no social life, and most days you feel like you were hit by a Mack Truck.” But, he added, “I would do it all over again. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my life.”

SCOTUS oral arguments reflect indifference to constitutional grounding of Voting Rights Act

Jessica Martin — 2013-03-01 00:00:00

Magarian

The Supreme Court appears very likely to strike down the most important provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitution law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

“This was an unusually revealing oral argument, because two justices asked questions that reflected both fundamental misunderstanding of the law and disturbing indifference to the constitutional grounding of the Voting Rights Act,” he says.

“Given that the two justices in question are the leading intellectual lights of the Court’s right-wing majority, and given that almost everyone expects both of them to vote to strike down Section 5, their statements from the oral argument deserve attention,” Magarian says.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires certain “covered jurisdictions” with histories of racial discrimination in voting, mostly in the South, to obtain “preclearance” from the U.S. Department of Justice before implementing any changes in election laws or procedures. Shelby County, Ala., has challenged Section 5 as beyond the scope of Congress’s power to enforce the constitution’s bar against racial discrimination in voting.

Magarian’s comments on the Voting Rights Act oral arguments follow:

Justice Antonin Scalia claimed that continued enforcement of section 5 amounted to ‘perpetuation of a racial entitlement.’

He asserted that congressional reauthorization of Section 5 reflects nothing more than fear of reprisals by the overwhelming political might of racial minority groups. That assertion reflects a misunderstanding of the Court’s constitutional role, from a justice who has often complained loudly about supposed acts of judicial activism by others.

First, Judges have no special competence to discern legislators’ motives. Indeed, Justice Scalia has spent his career attacking efforts by his colleagues to determine the purposes of statutes. His failure to take into account Congress’s careful consideration and debate when reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act exemplifies the very sort of incompetence he has assailed in other settings.

Second, even if Justice Scalia’s interpretation of Congress’s motive were correct, it would be legally irrelevant. The Supreme Court does not sit to second-guess Congress’s policy choices.

The word “perpetuation” in Justice Scalia’s comment embodies an even more disturbing attitude, because it presumes that Section 5 always has been a vehicle for racial entitlement.

For a Supreme Court justice to suggest that citizens of color in 2012 face no genuine discrimination in voting – that congressional efforts to prevent such discrimination amount to undeserved favorable treatment of black and brown people – is misguided enough. But for a Supreme Court justice to deny that racial discrimination in voting ever justified Section 5’s legal remedy is especially disheartening. One would have thought that we could all agree, at least, about the importance of acknowledging our country’s difficult and unfortunate history of racial disenfranchisement.

In addition to Justice Scalia’s comment, Chief Justice John Roberts during the argument suggested that the federal government’s continued support for Section 5 reflected a view that the South was “more racist” than the rest of the country. Like Justice Scalia, the chief justice was probing government motives that are none of the Supreme Court’s business. He was also giving voice to the right-wing lament that accusations of racism are worse than the thing itself.

If the Court this June wipes out the most important, successful weapon against racial discrimination in voting that our government has ever produced, Justice Scalia and Chief Justice Roberts will likely speak in bland legalese, if they say anything at all. We should remember, on that day, what they said this week, in the heat of argument; and we should ask ourselves whether our constitutional ideals of racial equality and universal suffrage deserve better stewards.

New opportunity for execs to advance careers comes to Denver

Neil Schoenherr — 2013-02-22 00:00:00

Business professionals looking to take their careers to the next level and sharpen their leadership skills will welcome the arrival of a top-ranked Executive MBA program in Denver that promises a rigorous and relevant deep-dive graduate degree in management.

Joe Angeles

Brookings Hall on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis will offer its 20-month Executive MBA program — ranked No. 2 worldwide by The Wall Street Journal — in Denver beginning in September.

“For many years, the economic growth and opportunity in Denver — coupled with a lifestyle that is second to none — have attracted talent from coast to coast to our community,” says Ralph J. Nagel, president of Denver’s Top Rock LLC and a member of the Washington University Board of Trustees.

“I think the marketplace will welcome the addition of Washington University’s top-ranked Executive MBA program, giving companies and individuals alike an added resource for leadership development in our own backyard,” says Nagel, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Washington University.

Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, and Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean of Olin Business School, led a public kickoff event for the new degree Feb. 20 at the Innovation Pavilion in Centennial, Colo.

Nagel emceed the event, which was hosted by Vic Ahmed, founder of the Innovation Pavilion, who earned degrees in computer science and systems engineering from Washington University.

“Attracted by the growth and entrepreneurial spirit of Denver and its business environment, we are bringing our prestigious and globally celebrated Executive MBA program to serve the talent advancement and leadership development needs of this dynamic community,” says Panos Kouvelis, PhD, senior associate dean and director of Executive Programs at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School.

“With the access to a brand-name degree well-proven to be a passport to success for so many of our alumni all over the globe, Denver executives will no longer need to get on a plane to pursue their career acceleration aspirations that only a top-ranked program can provide,” Kouvelis says.

Classes will begin Sept. 15 at a location to be announced.

The program is designed to accommodate busy executive schedules with classes meeting once a month in addition to three residencies, two in St. Louis and one in Shanghai. Classes will be held locally in Denver for the first half of the program and at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis during the second half, giving executives the opportunity to share the classroom with the St. Louis cohort.

Members of Olin Business School’s full-time, tenured faculty teach all courses using case method, interactive lectures and team-oriented projects. For classes held in Denver, Olin Business School professors will travel to Denver, giving both Denver and St. Louis cohorts the same academic experience.

A two-week international residency in Shanghai is one of the highlights of the program and is taught in conjunction with Washington University’s partner institution in China, Fudan University.

“The Olin Executive MBA program equipped me with the tools to conduct and drive business on a global platform, and gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams,” says Victor Dawson, Washington University Executive MBA graduate and founder and president of Summit Group International, a global sourcing services and consulting company based in Denver.

“By a combination of the cutting-edge research the professors teach and more than 500 years of business experience via peers in the classroom, my strategic and critical thinking was greatly enhanced. I transformed from a local executive to a global founder and driver of business,” says Dawson, who lives in Denver with his wife.

The Washington University Executive MBA program staff will host two information sessions in Denver, at 6 p.m. March 6 and April 23 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Cherry Creek. Additional dates will be added between May and August.

For more information on Olin’s Executive MBA program and on the information sessions, visit olin.wustl.edu/EMBA. Executive education staff members can be reached directly at emba@wustl.edu or (314) 935-EMBA.

About Olin Business School:

Founded in 1917, Olin Business School is part of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, an institution recognized for its academic scholarship and for its exceptional faculty and students. The school’s mission is to create knowledge, inspire individuals and transform business.

Degree and non-degree offerings emphasize critical thinking, strategic problem solving, global competence, applied learning, creativity and innovation. The business school is fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The Financial Times ranked Olin’s Master of Science in Finance program No. 2 in the United States and the Washington University-Fudan University Executive MBA No. 9 in the world. The Wall Street Journal ranked Olin’s EMBA program No. 2 globally. U.S. News & World Report rated Olin’s full-time MBA program No. 19 in the nation.

New faculty join Olin Business School

2013-02-25 00:00:00

Several new faculty members have joined the Olin Business School. Their expertise covers various areas, such as accounting, communications, finance and marketing.

Linda M. Buhr, PhD, is an adjunct lecturer. Buhr has both domestic and international corporate work experience, first with Emerson and then with Tuwazi Party Ltd, based in Sydney. A highlight of her career there was working with the Sydney 2000 Olympic Committee. Previously, she was an assistant professor of business administration at Fontbonne University.

Jared Jennings, PhD, is an assistant professor of accounting. He previously was a teaching assistant in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Earlier, he was a senior audit associate at Deloitte & Touche. His research interests include litigation, regulation and ﬁnancial reporting.

Thomas Maurer, PhD, is an assistant professor of finance. Previously, Maurer was a graduate teaching assistant at The London School of Economics. His research interests include asset pricing, optimal portfolio choice, long-run risk, demographic change and uncertainty in ﬁnance, and learning in ﬁnancial markets.

Elizabeth Petre, PhD, is a postdoctoral lecturer of communication. Previously, Petre was a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Her courses at Olin will promote effective writing, presentation and critical-thinking skills to assist students in their personal and professional lives.

James Sawhill, PhD, is a visiting assistant professor of marketing. Before he pursued a doctoral degree, Sawhill was a senior vice president with Wells Fargo and a senior associate with Booz-Allen and Hamilton. His teaching interests include marketing management, marketing strategy and sustainable marketing.

Ngoc-Khanh Tran, PhD, is an assistant professor of finance. Previously, he was a finance teaching assistant in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include asset pricing, international ﬁnance and investments.

Three teams top Olin Sustainability Case Competition

2013-02-21 00:00:00

http://youtu.be/Z1GWGYDLTsEOlin Business School's fourth annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition challenged students to propose plans for developing more than 10,000 vacant lots in St. Louis. Twenty five teams with students from different disciplines across the university entered the competition. Three teams made it to the finals. Judges were so impressed with the proposals that two teams split first prize, earning $4,000 each, and the third team was awarded $2,000. From solar panels to community service projects, the students came up with creative ideas in the contest, titled “Blight, Plight and Urban Flight: Stimulating the Sustainable Development of Vacant Land in the City of St. Louis." Judges said these ideas could be applied to any city with a vacant property problem. For more information on the competition, visit

apps.olin.wustl.edu/mba/casecompetition/index.cfm.

WUSTL leaders urge action on sequester threat

Elizabethe Holland Durando — 2013-02-21 00:00:00

Wrighton

Echoing recent concerns regarding the “fiscal cliff,” Washington University in St. Louis administrators are urging Congress and the White House to reach a compromise to avoid wide-ranging, across-the-board federal spending cuts that would take effect March 1.

University leaders including Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, say they are deeply troubled by the potential impact of a “sequester” and the harm it would bring to education, health care, scientific research and innovation and the economy.

“Our leaders in Washington must make a critical decision that will have far-reaching consequences for America’s colleges and universities and the federal dollars they depend upon," says Wrighton, who sent a letter expressing his concerns to Missouri's congressional delegation earlier this week.

"These dollars represent lost opportunity for the nation. Students will find it more difficult to attend educational institutions of their choice. Scholars will find it harder to receive support for ground-breaking research. But ultimately, it will be our long-term national economy and security that will suffer without a well-trained workforce ready to invent and utilize ideas and technologies for the future.”

Shapiro

Says Shapiro: “Such significant reductions in spending would have sobering consequences for our health, our economy, our future. These cuts would delay life-saving treatments, cost jobs and deliver a blow to this country’s global competitiveness.”

Wrighton and Shapiro encourage Washington University’s faculty, students, staff, alumni and others to examine what is at risk and share their concerns with legislators.

To that end, the two are encouraging people to consider signing an online petition launched by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that urges the White House and Congress to achieve a bipartisan budget compromise that avoids sequestration and “moves the country on to sound fiscal footing without sacrificing our nation’s crucial investments in science and technology.”

The petition goes on to say: “Almost every national priority — from health and defense, agriculture and conservation, to hazards and natural disasters — relies on science and engineering. As another fiscal cliff approaches, placing a significant burden on federal research and development investments, as sequestration would do, is nothing less than a threat to national competitiveness. Support for science is support for economic growth, innovation, and technological progress.”

If sequestration occurs, the AAAS projects that federal research and development funding will be reduced by about $54 billion by 2017. Such cuts would do significant damage to scientific research and would eliminate jobs and stall innovation, the organization warns.

The AAAS, through its “Speak up for Science” petition, is urging researchers, professionals, students and others, especially those in science, technology, engineering and math fields, to sign the petition by Tuesday evening, Feb. 26. The AAAS will submit the petition Wednesday, Feb. 27, to legislators and the White House.

To access the petition, follow this link.

WUSTL Business & Law News

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Aligning values with employer can lead to promotion, suggests new study

Campus Author: The Japanese Supreme Court and Judicial Review

Drones may violate international law

Focus on renewable energy

IRS investigation spotlights need for Inspectors General

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Washington University teams each win $50,000 Arch Grants in startup competition

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Sant named co-director of IP/Nonprofit Law Clinic

Law professor Martin installed as Nagel Chair

‘Don’t despair’ and six other career tips for new college graduates

Defining moments

Hatchery course helps fuel student start-up companies

Olin Business School showcases distinguished alumni

New faculty join Brown School, Law School

Brown School

School of Law

Push for corporate board diversity set to increase in the U.S. due to European pressure

Increasing surveillance a dangerous reaction to Boston bombings, says privacy law expert

Design Thinking seminar April 24 in Kansas City to help spur business innovation

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Olin accelerated program gives students a jump-start on master’s degree in finance

Make music with student-created app

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Senate votes to limit STOCK Act’s web-based publication of employees’ financial information

Social entrepreneurs win share of $164,000 at annual innovation competition

Are human genes patentable?

Filibuster abuse destabilizes government and is unconstitutional

Motivational workplace award programs not as effective as thought

Sherraden moderates panel discussion on poverty alleviation at Clinton Global Initiative University

Q&A: Kurt Dirks

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel to give Tyrrell Williams Lecture April 11​

Supreme Court can strike down DOMA without impacting right to marry, says constitutional law expert

Levin elected to American Law Institute

Babcock to lecture on negotiations and the gender divide

Political scientist Cohen to speak April 9​

The dangers of surveillance - it’s bad, but why?

Three challenges for the First Amendment

The importance of groups: First Amendment expert testifies before United States Commission on Civil Rights

Washington University School of Law launches national semester-in-practice externship

Student externship experiences in D.C., New York lead to jobs

Brief background on experiential learning opportunities

REINS Act would severely impair ability to implement laws

Olin students work with St. Louis startup Lockerdome on market and finance research

SCOTUS oral arguments reflect indifference to constitutional grounding of Voting Rights Act

New opportunity for execs to advance careers comes to Denver

New faculty join Olin Business School​

Three teams top Olin Sustainability Case Competition

WUSTL leaders urge action on sequester threat

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel to give Tyrrell Williams Lecture April 11

Political scientist Cohen to speak April 9

New faculty join Olin Business School