For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, PLANNING, FINANCIAL, BUSINESS, POLITICAL, SPORTS, CITY DESK, FEATURES AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO–May 22, 2007–Chicago-Kent College of Law and Stuart School of Business have experts available to discuss current issues. To reach any of our experts, call Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, at (312) 906-5251. Press releases and earlier advisories are available on our Web site: www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
Paul Wolfowitz last week resigned as president of the World Bank amid revelations that he authorized preferential treatment – including a large salary increase and promotion – for his girlfriend and bank employee Shaha Riza. Wolfowitz’s resignation is effective June 30 and President Bush has indicated that he would like an American to succeed Wolfowitz. Prior to joining the World Bank, Wolfowitz served as deputy U.S. secretary of defense and has been called the architect of American policy in Iraq. Chicago-Kent professor Bartram S. Brown is co-director of the program in international and comparative law. Professor Brown is also the author of The United States and the Politicization of the World Bank: Issues of International Law and Policy. Stuart School of Business professor Khairy A. Tourk is also available for interviews. Professor Tourk teaches international business, economic theory, finance and international trade and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Bowing to pressure from the attorneys general from eight states, MySpace.com has agreed to disclose the names of registered sex offenders who use the popular Web site. Citing the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, MySpace.com last week refused to comply with a request by attorneys general from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Idaho to submit the names. The states also requested that the site, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, reveal how it warns users about sex offenders and what it has done to remove their profiles from MySpace.com. Chicago-Kent Dean Harold J. Krent is an expert on personal privacy issues. Dean Krent served on the Illinois Institute of Technology team that examined the FBI’s e-mail surveillance system (formerly known as Carnivore) for privacy issues.
An asterisk for Barry Bonds? The San Francisco Giants slugger is fast approaching Hank Aaron’s 755-home run record. However, Bonds’ pursuit of the record has been overshadowed by allegations of steroid use, which he repeatedly has denied. Several investigations are underway. Adjunct professor and sports attorney Eldon L. Ham says that if it can be proven that Bonds willingly used steroids, Major League Baseball "should qualify his records accordingly. But short of that, baseball at least should give Roger Maris and Hank Aaron a real asterisk, designating them as ‘…the last home run recordholders in the pre-steroid era.’" Professor Ham, the author of Larceny & Old Leather: The Mischievous Legacy of Major League Baseball, is available for interviews. Chicago-Kent professor and die-hard baseball fan David Rudstein is also available for interviews.
The battle between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and InterContinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) continues. A July 9 vote has been set on the proposed merger between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, which was agreed to prior to ICE’s unsolicited bid of nearly $10 billion for CBOT. There is dissension about the merger among CBOT’s 3,000 shareholders, and last week CME increased its offer to $9.2 billion. A majority of exchange members and shareholders must approve the merger. Professor Michael Gorham, director of IIT’s Stuart School of Business Center for Financial Markets, is available for interviews. Professor Gorham served as the first director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s new Division of Market Oversight, a division of 100 economists, lawyers, futures trading specialists and others dedicated to the oversight of the nation’s 12 futures exchanges.
Immigration reform. A bipartisan group of senators last week reached agreement on a proposal that could grant legal status to many of the 12 million undocumented workers in the United States. The Senate is expected to begin debate on the “Secure Borders and Immigration Reform Act of 2007,” with a vote on the measure to come some time in June. Professor Matthew I. Bernstein, who oversees Chicago-Kent’s Immigration Law Clinic, has reservations about the proposal. Professor Bernstein says the bill “limits current family preferences and replaces the current employment-based immigration categories with a ‘merit-based’ point system with totally inadequate numbers.” He says the measure’s “new guest worker program is deeply flawed and provides no path to permanent status for temporary workers. It would create a constantly churning workforce with a two-year limit.” Professor Bernstein’s practice includes advising corporations, nonprofit organizations and individuals in all areas of immigration law, including professionals; aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts and business; individuals seeking immigration benefits for family members; and individuals threatened with removal from the United States by the government.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2006-07 term is coming to a close. Constitutional scholar and distinguished professor Sheldon H. Nahmod is available for interviews about the cases yet to be decided, the Roberts Court, highlights of the Supreme Court's 2006-07 session, and key issues the justices will consider during the new term.
May is Older Americans Month. One in six Americans is 60 years of age or older. Last year, the nation’s oldest baby boomers began turning 60. Chicago-Kent professor Howard C. Eglit is an expert on law and aging. Professor Eglit is the author of Elders on Trial: Age and Ageism in the American Legal System and of a three-volume treatise, Age Discrimination. He is available for interviews in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. He can also discuss workplace issues faced by aging baby boomers.
Downtown Campus Events:
June 5: “Managing Information in One of the Biggest Companies in India” is the topic of a presentation by Ashishkumar Chauhan, president and chief information officer of Reliance Industries, a petrochemical company and India’s largest private-sector company. As CIO, Chauhan is responsible for IT applications development, configuration, rollout and operations. Chauhan is regarded as one of the five founders of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), India’s largest automated exchange, counted among the top three markets in the world by number of trades. He developed a satellite communication network for NSE which has served as a technology model for many other companies in India. At NSE, Chauhan was set up the initial IT infrastructure and oversaw operations of the equity and derivatives markets for more than seven years. He is considered “the father of commercial satellite telecom and of modern exchange-traded financial derivatives markets in India.” Chauhan created the NSE-50 Index, the largest traded stock index in Indian derivatives market. This program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (312) 906-6508.
June 8: 26th annual Conference on Not-For-Profit Organizations. This one-day seminar is presented by a faculty of leading organization executives, attorneys, accountants and government officials. Program highlights include “Highlights of the Pension Protection Act of 2006,” “Understanding and Planning for Unrelated Business Income,” “Executive Compensation,” and “Accounting Issues – For Grants and Other Restricted Funds.” There will also be an “Intellectual Property Update” that will explore the types of intellectual property which not-for-profit organizations have and are likely to overlook protecting. Copyright, trademark and the right to publicity will be discussed. Workshops will also focus on the legislative and regulatory environment in Washington, D.C., for tax-exempt organizations, electronic filing requirements for IRS Form 990, and a report from the Office of the Illinois Attorney General on issues affecting not-for-profit groups in the state. For more information, call (312) 906-5090.
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