Fall ’09/Spring ’10 Luncheon Speaker Series
This series features practitioners and academics exploring issues at the intersections of law, business and economics.
All talks are from 12:45 to 1:45 pm (unless noted otherwise). Lunch will be provided; CLE credit is available.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Business Law Section of the CA State Bar Association
Careers in Business Law
Boalt Hall, Room 110
Watch video (Quicktime required)
This event was co-sponsored with the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ).
Still trying to decide on a career focus? Considering a career as a business lawyer? BCLB and BBLJ hosted a panel discussion, organized by the Business Law Section of the CA State Bar, on the realities of business law practice. Lawyers from diverse business practice areas provided insights into what they do, a first hand view of the day to day realities of different business practices, and guidance on how to investigate and determine whether and which area of business practice might be attractive to you.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Professors Eric Talley, Robert Bartlett and BCLB Executive Director Ken Taymor
Business Law Community Forum
Boalt Hall, Room 110
This event is being co-sponsored with the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ)
Come learn more about what business and finance related classes, resources, and extracurricular activities are available to students! Meet with Professors Eric Talley, Robert Bartlett and BCLB Executive Director Ken Taymor. Topics will include an overview of the Business Law Curriculum at Boalt, info about the Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) and opportunities with the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ).
We’ll discuss the core and elective business law curriculum, preview the Fall 2010 semester classes and provide guidance on how to plan your course selection over the next 1 – 2 years. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about what the business law program at Berkeley Law has to offer!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Lauren Bowne, Thomas Brown and Katherine Porter
“New Credit Card Regulations: Impacts and Implications”
Boalt Hall, Room 145
This event is being co-sponsored with the Boalt Consumer Law Society (BCLS) This year ushers in a wave of changes to the system of lending in the United States. The major provisions of the Credit CARD Act, which went into effect in February, set new standards for interest rate increases, credit card marketing and disclosure requirements.
In addition, under new rules promulgated by the Federa Reserve, starting this summer banks must ask consumers whether they want to opt-in for overdraft programs.
These new rules have been praised by consumer advocacy groups as necessary steps in the right direction, and sharply criticized by banks as unnecessary measures that will cost a crippled industry billions of dollars and result in less credit to those who need it most. How will the new regulations impact creditors and consumers? What incentives do these regulations create? And what questions do these measures raise for future policy initiatives?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Safra A. Catz, President of Oracle Corporation
“The Anatomy of a Deal”
Boalt Hall, Room 105
Oracle President Safra Catz will give an insider’s look at the anatomy of a business deal, including the role of the various players on the Oracle team, how the business strategy to implement the deal was determined and implemented, and how the deal relates to the global marketplace in which Oracle operates.
This is a great opportunity to learn a business executive’s perspective about what skills and knowledge she expects her lawyers to have and contributions she expected her lawyers to make to the deal (planning, implementing and post-closing).
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
James Pearl, O’Melveny & Myers
“Dominating the World: How Monopolists Face an Increasingly Uncertain Fate in the Courts and Before Global Regulators”
Boalt Hall, Room 110
In September of this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will face off against the Intel Corporation in the largest monopolization case since Microsoft. The government’s case against Intel is the culmination of a nearly decade long battle between Intel and various worldwide regulators. It also comes on the heels of Intel’s payment of $1.25 billion to its largest competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to settle claims brought by AMD in 2005. The FTC’s suit will test how far the antitrust laws can go to regulate a dominant firm’s conduct. Using the FTC’s suit against Intel as a case study, join James “Bo” Pearl in a vigorous academic and legal debate surrounding the question of whether courts and government agencies should be policing single firm conduct and what types of evidence tips the balance in these large antitrust cases. And what challenges face plaintiffs and defendants alike in litigating these cases in an email driven world?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Stephen Bainbridge, Ken Taymor and John P. Hunt
“A Break Down of the Bailout”
Boalt Hall, Room 100
Watch video (Quicktime required)
Event was co-sponsored with the Federalist Society at Boalt Hall.
As the economy crumbled in 2008, the government intervened to “save” financial institutions that were “too big to fail.” This unprecedented action generated a multitude of legal, economic, and political questions; perhaps none more important than “will it work?” With the decision to intervene behind us, it is now time to evaluate the impacts and implications for law, business, and the economy as a whole.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Nathan Bush, O’Melveny & Myers
“Competing in China: Antitrust, Anticorruption, & Industrial Policy”
Boalt Hall, Room 110
Watch video (Quicktime Required)
China’s leadership enters 2010 with a mammoth stimulus program onstream and mounting (often conflicting pressures) to restructure China’s hybrid “command-market” system and its role in the global economy. At the central government’s disposal are new instruments such as the Antimonopoly Law, older tools such as the Law on Guarding State Secrets, and the state’s tremendous influence over Chinese finance and commerce. Foreign firms active in China face new regulatory challenges, from the antitrust obstacles of acquiring Chinese firms to the corruption risks of dealing with the state sector. Nathan Bush explored the intersection of China’s evolving antitrust, anticorruption, trade, and industrial policies. Nathan Bush is a partner in the Antitrust & Competition Practice Group of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. He currently serves as the General Counsel of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Thomas Kellogg, Open Society Institute & Soros Foundation
“Legal Reform in China: The Domestic Debate”
Boalt Hall, Room 110
Watch video (Quicktime Required)
This event is co-sponsored with the Center for Chinese Studies.
Many assumed that China would, as it grows more prosperous, embrace the rule of law, even as it maintains a go-slow approach on political reform. But in March 2008, the Communist Party renewed its support for “socialist legality,” highlighting the role of the Party in the judicial process and explicitly rejecting Western-style legal reforms. Some Chinese critics of the new policy have called for an embrace of global values and renewed efforts to construct independent legal institutions free from Party influence. Others advocate wide-ranging, wholesale structural reforms based on the Western constitutional model. Still others eschew specific policy proposals and instead offer a nationalist critique of Western governments’ interactions with China.
This ongoing internal debate is vitally important: its outcome will help determine China’s reform path. Those seeking to better understand where China is going need to look closely not just at the ever-growing thicket of new laws and regulations issued by the State, but also at what both the government and its well-meaning critics are saying about the future of political and legal reform in China.
RSVP to Registration or contact Fredda Olivares at 510.643.6319
The Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) is the hub of U.C. Berkeley’s education and research on the impact of law on business and the U.S. and global economies.