Outstanding students may apply to the Olin Program for grants and fellowships to support research or the pursuit of a joint degree in law and economics. Students have used their Olin grants to underwrite independent projects on everything from regulatory issues on the Internet to voting coalitions in publicly held corporations. Olin fellowships provide both compensation and travel expenses to underwrite student work. The Olin Program also supports faculty research and distributes faculty (and sometimes student) working papers that are often published in the premier journals of law and economics. The Olin Program’s popular “free lunch” discussions, for faculty and students, explore research ideas and hot topics in law, economics, and business, including conflicts of interest in corporate law, law enforcement and organized crime, and the market for securities fraud class action litigation.

In addition to shaping the future of law students, Stanford Law offers innovative executive education programs that blend law, business, policy, and conflict resolution. Scholars, policymakers, corporate leaders, investment bankers, venture capitalists, mediators, and leaders in the legal community from across the country and internationally gather to share their expertise and discuss solutions to the challenges they face every day.

Instructors include faculty from Stanford Law as well as the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the broader university. Other instructors are members of the judicial, policymaking, corporate, and mediation communities.

Opportunities through the Olin Program

Grants from the John M. Olin Program give students the chance to participate in important faculty research or pursue research projects of their own. JD students have supported faculty research on:

The profitability of corporations run by highly paid CEOs Intellectual property as a business asset

Employment and labor law Korean corporate governance

Outside director liability and reputational sanctions across countries

Private rules for controlling “private money” (such as PayPal transfers)

The role of benevolent despots in economic development

Econometric analysis of antitakeover provisions in firms spun off from public companies

The economics of coupon remedies in class actions

With Olin grants, law students have undertaken their own research on:

Fishery regulation in Japan

How differences in constitutional systems affect economic reform in post-communist countries

Digital copyright policies in the United States and Japan

A “law and economics” analysis of campaign finance disclosure regimes

Capital markets and corporate governance in China

The carbon storage potential of farmland and the implications of carbon market prices on land use decisions