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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

Gerlinde Berger-Walliser

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.


Mansfield Man Eyes New Ways To Take Macro Photos

Hartford Courant – In high school science classes in Pennsylvania, Mark Smith used just a standard, tabletop microscope to magnify the samples of minerals and rocks that would inspire him to become a geologist.

But in his free time, the teenager was helping to build a much more powerful device — a macro photography system that could compete with the best on the market to produce ultra-high resolution, full-color images of the tiniest things on Earth.


Recent MIS Graduate Lands Dream Job at Sony Music

Maggie Quackenbush in the office during her first week at Sony Music. (Maggie Quackenbush)
Maggie Quackenbush in the office during her first week at Sony Music. (Maggie Quackenbush)

Maggie Quackenbush ’17 Joins New, Two-Year Rotational Program for Recent Graduates Interested in Information Systems and Technology

Maggie Quackenbush ’17 happily accepted a job at Sony Music because she can leverage her management information systems degree and learn something new every day. Continue Reading


CT’s Recession Lasted Much Longer Than You Think

Hartford Business Journal – While many people consider the Great Recession to have lasted only two years, Connecticut’s economic malaise lasted much longer. In fact, measured by real output or gross state product, Connecticut’s economy actually shrank for seven years, even as the state regained jobs lost during the Great Recession.


From Visualization to Legal Design: A Collaborative and Creative Process

American Business Law Journal, Vol. 54, No. 2, Summer 2017, p. 347-392

Gerlinde Berger-Walliser

Although the law remains predominately focused on the written word, a growing body of scholarship and legal practice reflect a dramatic increase in the use of visualization in virtually every legal context. Three starting assumptions underpin our ideas of implementing visualization ideas and techniques into what we call “Legal Design” that may aid contract simplification:

First, we examine the use of images in business documents and in statutes, rather than for advocacy. Moving away from adversarial settings offers several advantages. It permits us to illustrate the use of images in a broader range of practical legal applications. It also enables us to adopt the thinking, values, and methods of a non-traditional approach to lawyering and the law: “Preventive Law” or “Proactive Law” (combined here as “PPL”). Second, we offer guidelines for using images in conjunction with words rather than in isolation, since the law only rarely abandons its verbal expression. Realistically, visualization is almost always used in hybrid ways — combinations of words and images to enhance the effectiveness of communication. That seems unlikely to change, given the need for detail and refinement when the law is imposing duties on people. Finally, our method analyzes variables surrounding choices and consequences about the process of generating, transmitting, and using images to accompany legal language. Examining this dynamic can deepen our understanding of the information conveyed; it can also reveal the potential of visualization for creating spillover value for businesses or regulatory agencies that employ the images to advance legal and organizational effectiveness. Full article.



Folta to Oversee Professional Group

Westfair Communications – University of Connecticut management professor Timothy B. Folta has been elected to a five-year term overseeing the Business Policy and Strategy (BPS) Division of the Academy of Management. The academy is an organization of management educators, with more than 19,000 members in 120 countries. In addition to hosting conferences and supporting research, it publishes six research journals. The BPS division has more than 5,000 members.


Precarious Work: The Need for Flextime Employment Rights and Proposals for Reform

Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law, Vol. 37, Issue 1 (2016)

Robert Bird

Millions of Americans are under intense pressure to balance work and family responsibilities. The feeling of overwork is rampant, with nearly half of employees feeling overworked or overwhelmed by their workplace responsibilities. This Article argues for a suite of legal protections that would allow working families, especially single-parent and low-income families, basic access to the rights and protections of flexible work. These protections include amending FLSA rides to better protect non-exempt workers from intrusions into their non-working time, as well as expanding the use of the FMLA to encourage more use of flexible leave. This article also recommends adoption of right-to-request legislation, enabling employees to request a flexible schedule and have that request meaningfully evaluated by their employer without fear of retaliation. Full article.

UConn Innovation Quest: CRISPR – X

CTStartup Podcast– You may not have heard of it, but CRISPR (that stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”) could change the face of modern medicine as we know it. Many startups are involved in trying to utilize CRISPR to cure diseases, but a couple of college students may have already beaten them to the punch.

UConn students Ryan Englander and Nandan Tumu are developing a way to use CRISPR as a means of fighting off certain kinds of cancers even after they’re developed. Could these two college students find the cancer breakthrough that has eluded modern medicine for so long?