Symposia
Spring 2013: Business Law Symposium – “Agency Theory: Still Viable?”
The Wake Forest Law Review will host its Spring 2013 business law symposium on Friday, March 22, at the School of Law. The Symposium, for which Professor Alan Palmiter is serving as faculty adviser, will address whether the assumptions about human motivations implicit in modern agency theory are still viable.
Michael Jensen, who in 1976 expounded the agency costs theory of the modern corporation, will give the keynote talk. In addition, a panel of distinguished scholars will consider whether contemporary corporate governance mechanisms — such as executive compensation, board composition, and effective oversight of management by independent directors, institutional investors, financial intermediaries, and the media — are producing the promised benefits of reducing agency costs within modern business corporations.
Fall 2012: Privatizing the Public Good: Emerging Trends in K-16 Education
The Wake Forest Law Review will host its Fall 2012 Symposium on Friday, October 26. Titled “Privatizing the Public Good: Emerging Trends in K-16 Education,” the symposium will consist of several panels of distinguished scholars and experts that will address privatization trends at both the K-12 and higher education levels.
Privatization trends in K-16 education challenge the traditional view of education as a public good and raise interesting questions concerning the role and shape of education reform. Two panels will discuss privatization trends specific to the K-12 level, including: school choice and competition; accountability mechanisms; the suburban vs. urban divide; and outsourcing educational functions to private entities. With respect to higher education, the presenters will focus on trends such as: escalating tuition and the student debt crisis; the growth of for profit universities; the changing business model for higher education involving diversified revenue streams and different delivery formats; and the potential for greater regulation of federal aid for higher education institutions.
The symposium will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in room 1312 (the “big courtroom”) of the Worrell Professional Center (Building #32 on the Campus Map). No registration is required and admission is free. With regards to parking, please contact the Symposium Editors of the Wake Forest Law Review, Taryn Kadar and Will Daughtrey, who will be glad to send you a parking pass for the day of the event. Any North Carolina attorney in attendance will receive 4.5 hours of CLE credit to satisfy the general requirements. For any questions or more information on the symposium, please feel free to contact Taryn and Will.
Spring 2012 symposium, “The Asymmetry of Administrative Law: The Lack of Public Participation and the Public Interest”
The Wake Forest Law Review will host its Spring 2012 symposium, “The Asymmetry of Administrative Law: The Lack of Public Participation and the Public Interest” on Friday, March 30, in the Worrell Professional Center.
The symposium, under the guidance of Professor Sidney Shapiro, will focus on a troubling trend in governmental administrative process: a steadying decline in participation by special-interest groups.
The event, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 1312 of the Worrell Professional Center, is free and open to the public.
The 1970s saw a “reformation” of administration, as a more inclusive procedure was designed to allow participation by the public in the form of public interest groups. It was assumed, in short, that the participation of public interest groups would ensure that the administrative process would not tilt in favor of regulated entities.
However, recent research has suggested that this is not in fact that case. Empirical evidence suggests what has long been commonly known to objective observers: such groups simply do not have the resources to effectively participate in all but a few of the current administrative proceedings. It has also been shown that public interest groups are often overwhelmed by the interests of regulated organizations in the administrative process.
This symposium will consider the short and long-term effects of the decline of participation by these groups.
Fall 2011 Community Prosecution and Defense Symposium
Spring 2011 Sustainable Corporation Symposium
Fall 2010 Symposium “Twenty Years After the 1991 Civil Rights Act: What Does the Future Hold?”
The symposium focused on the 1991 Act’s ability – or perhaps its inability – to vindicate worker’s rights in employment discrimination cases and examine new approaches, both legal and non-legal, to redress employment discrimination. The symposium addressed both the practical – where do plaintiffs do best – and the theoretical – do we need a Civil Rights Act of 2011?