News Times– OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma ranked as the top donor among a group of five pharmaceutical companies that poured millions of dollars during the past five years into prominent nonprofits supporting large-scale opioid use, according to a new report from U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.
Business Law
Professor Stephen Park Named Satell CSR Fellow

Solutions to Climate Change, Poverty, Other Social Challenges Require Collective Effort, New Approaches
Business Law Professor Stephen Park has been named to the newly created position of Satell Fellow in Corporate Social Responsibility.
“The School of Business is deeply invested in the development of corporate social responsibility guidelines and shares the belief that this work is of utmost importance,” said Dean John A. Elliott. Continue Reading
Purdue Faces Uphill Battle to Overcome Opioid Controversy
New York’s Suit Against Purdue Pharma Could Have Major Impact
Stamford Advocate– New York City this week added a new dimension to the legal crisis facing Purdue Pharma.
The nation’s largest city is suing several pharmaceutical firms including Stamford’s Purdue, one of the most prominent of the many lawsuits that blame the company for fueling the opioid crisis.
Purdue Pharma, Prosecutors Continue Dialogue
Stamford Advocate – As a growing number of states pursue legal action against Purdue Pharma for allegedly stoking the nation’s opioid crisis, both sides are seeking to avoid protracted and costly cases.
UConn Alum Malfettone Speaks About Corporate Compliance as a Competitive Advantage

John Malfettone ’77, senior managing director and chief compliance officer at Clayton, Dubilier, and Rice, spoke to 100 students and alumni about “Corporate Compliance as a Competitive Advantage.” Continue Reading
Protecting the Vulnerable
UConn Human Rights Conference Gathers Experts to Address Ways to Watch Over Garment Workers
The new shirt that you are wearing is impeccably tailored and bears a prominent designer label, so it must be responsibly sourced.
Right? Continue Reading
Business Law’s Stephen Park Honored with ‘Distinguished Early Career Faculty’ Award
Business Law Assistant Professor Stephen Park was awarded the Distinguished Early Career Faculty Award by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) at the 2017 annual conference in Savannah, Georgia in August. Continue Reading
Puerto Rico’s Debt Dilemma and Pathways Toward Sovereign Solvency
American Business Law Journal, Vol. 54, No. 1, 2017
Puerto Rico, as a quasi-sovereign U.S. territory, is confronting a debt crisis of unparalleled legal complexity. This article analyzes the collective action problems in sovereign debt finance in the context of Puerto Rico’s quasi-sovereign debt dilemma. We examine how sovereign debtors engage with their private creditors in the absence of a formal bankruptcy regime and show how various legal incentives, imperatives, and constraints shape the degree and form of creditor engagement. Drawing on this conceptual framework, this article analyzes the role of these factors in the market-based debt restructuring by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and hypothesizes how these factors may influence the statutory restructuring process underway under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). Despite the idiosyncratic aspects of Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, the potential pathways for debtor-creditor cooperation in Puerto Rico provide valuable insights on the various ways that law influences debtor-creditor cooperation in sovereign debt finance beyond the enforcement of state-based public regulation and contract-based private legal commitments. Full article.
Using Proactive Legal Strategies for Corporate Environmental Sustainability
Berger-Walliser, G., Shrivastava, P., Sulkowski, A. Using Proactive Legal Strategies for Corporate Environmental Sustainability. 6 Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law, 1-36 (2016). Date Published: June 2017
We argue that proactive law can help organizations be more sustainable. Toward that end, this Article first summarizes proactive law literature as it pertains to corporate sustainability. Next, it examines a series of cases on the pivotal nexus between proactive law and corporate sustainability. It then advances novel propositions that connect proactive law to central organizational design elements. The discussion traces further implications and suggests fruitful avenues for research and ways of using proactive law for firms to become more sustainable. Full article.