Identifying the spark for what is now Silicon Valley is sport for some, but for others it’s the focus of serious study—whole university courses are designed to track the origins of this engine of innovation and entrepreneurship, perhaps hoping to capture it in a bottle.
Articles in ‘Legal Trends’
Law Students Awarded in Stanford Business Competition
June 11, 2012 | Issue 86Daniel Lewis, JD ’12, and Nik Reed, JD ’12 (BA ’02), came up with an idea for a legal search technology and have been juggling their busy course load with developing it. Their product presents a new view of legal search, says Reed, by using innovative visualization technology to provide search results that reveal the most important legal cases, connections between cases, and the evolution of legal principles over time. the two submitted their idea to the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students Group (BASES) Challenge. One of 150 original business plans under consideration, it won second place at the May finals where they were awarded $10,000. The very happy Lewis and Reed are pictured here holding the check, with BASES team members behind them.
Daniel Cooperman and the Role of the Modern GC
June 11, 2012 | Issue 86Your Privacy At Risk
October 28, 2011 | Issue 85Phone-hacking scandals at News of The World. One lawsuit after another alleging privacy breaches by major companies. A backlash over body-scanning machines in airport security lines. It’s been a busy year for those who work at the intersection of privacy law and technology. “2011 is the year that changed privacy,” [...]
JDs As VCs
October 28, 2011 | Issue 85Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, the Doobie Brothers, and Crosby, Stills & Nash headlined at Shoreline Amphitheater on a gorgeous summer day last August—a benefit for Musicians United for Safe Energy and humanitarian aid for Japan. It was a redux of a 1979 Madison Square Garden concert where the same musicians [...]
From the Dean
May 31, 2011 | Issue 84Students today put a lot more thought into choosing a law school than they did in the past. And they have access to vastly more information with which to do so. In addition to a surfeit of books offering advice on the best law schools, not to mention U.S. News, they can (and do) turn to blogs and list serves and chat groups to gather information and exchange stories and opinions. On top of this, most schools invite admitted applicants to spend a day or two on campus, where they can learn still more about the school and meet current students and faculty.
I really enjoy these weekends. I love meeting prospective students, each more amazing than the last. I like explaining what we do at Stanford Law and why. I especially enjoy conversations in which someone challenges me to explain why he or she should choose Stanford over some other law school. But this year was different in one respect. A number of admitted students were still undecided about attending law school at all, still looking to be persuaded that a law degree is worth the time and money—still unsure, in the lingo of the moment, that law is a good “value proposition.”
Prospective law students do not have these concerns because of the economy. Hard economic times usually make law school more attractive, as young people sensibly invest in their education while waiting for things to [...]
Law and the Biosciences
May 31, 2011 | Issue 84A leading expert on the legal, ethical, and social issues surrounding health law and the biosciences, Hank Greely (BA ’74) specializes in the implications of new biomedical technologies, especially those related to neuroscience, genetics, and stem cell research. He is chair of California’s Human Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee and served from 2007-2010 as co-director of the Law and Neuroscience Project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Here Professor Greely offers his insights into the growing field of law and biosciences.
Advocating Science
May 31, 2011 | Issue 84My graduate school advisor, the late Stephen Schneider, liked to ask his students: “Is the scientist-advocate an oxymoron?” As he was fond of pointing out, the two professional value systems are often in conflict. The ideal scientist is a disinterested party with a neutral perspective, while the ideal advocate is [...]
Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe
May 31, 2011 | Issue 84In this profile, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe ’89 (MA ’89) shares her insights on international human rights, democratic movements in the Middle East, the challenges of working in the United Nations, her path to a career as an ambassador, and more.
From Afghanistan to Bhutan to Timor-Leste
May 31, 2011 | Issue 84This article accompanies the “In Focus” story “Legal Education in Afghanistan.” Over the course of four short years three innovative rule of law projects have launched at Stanford Law School and have become the centerpiece of its Rule of Law Program—with each project offering students the opportunity to engage in the [...]