News Center

This Week's Experts – December 18, 2007

Overview

Stanford Law School faculty are available to offer legal analysis/commentary on the following news topics this week:

Topics

  • Subprime Crisis/Fed Mortgage Plan
  • Energy Bill
  • Bali Global Warming Agreement
  • CIA Tapes Hearing
  • Guantanamo
  • Wiretapping Vote Delayed
  • Death Penalty
  • Drug sentencing
    • Supreme Court Rulings: Kimbrough v. U.S., Gall v. U.S.
    • U.S. Sentencing Commission Votes to Ease Crack Sentences
  • U.S. Business
    • Facebook Privacy Concerns
    • Writers' Strike
    • Shareholder Lawsuits
    • Securities Fraud
    • Stock Option Backdating
    • Insider Trading
    • Product Liability Suits
    • Consumer Product Safety Overhaul
  • Barry Bonds/Mitchell Report
  • Iran in iraq/Iran Nuclear Program
  • Russia/Presidential Succession
  • Palestinian Aid
  • Pakistan
  • Darfur

Topics

Subprime Crisis/Fed Mortgage Plan

G. Marcus Cole
Wm. Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law
650 723.9216
Expertise: Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, Contracts, Venture Capital

Energy Bill

David Victor
Professor of Law
650 724.1712
Expertise: Energy Law and Regulation, Environmental and Natural Resources Law, International Environment, International Law and Economy
Deborah A. "Debbie" Sivas
Director, Environmental Law Clinic and Lecturer in Law
650 723.0325
Expertise: Environmental Law, Climate Change / Global Warming, litigates environmental protection cases in federal courts

Bali Global Warming Agreement

David Victor
Professor of Law
650 724.1712
Expertise: Energy Law and Regulation, Environmental and Natural Resources Law, International Environment, International Law and Economy
Deborah A. "Debbie" Sivas
Director, Environmental Law Clinic and Lecturer in Law
650 723.0325
Expertise: Environmental Law, Climate Change / Global Warming, litigates environmental protection cases in federal courts

CIA Tapes Hearing

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Professor of Law and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar
650 723.9216
Expertise: International Criminal Law, International Security, Separation of Powers
Jenny S. Martinez
Associate Professor of Law
650 725.2749
Expertise: Separation of Powers, Civil Procedure and Litigation, Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Human Rights, International Law, Detention related to Terrorism / GTMO

Guantanamo

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Professor of Law and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar
650 723.9216
Expertise: International Criminal Law, International Security, Separation of Powers
Jenny S. Martinez
Associate Professor of Law
650 725.2749
Expertise: Separation of Powers, Civil Procedure and Litigation, Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Human Rights, International Law, Detention related to Terrorism / GTMO

Wiretapping Vote Delayed

Derek Shaffer
Executive Director, Stanford Constitutional Law Center
650 723.7739
Expertise: Constitutional Law, Unsettled Constitutional and Statutory Questions, Complex Litigation

Death Penalty

Robert Weisberg
Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law
650 723.0612
Expertise: Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Criminal Procedure

Drug sentencing - Supreme Court Rulings: Kimbrough v. U.S., Gall v. U.S.

Kara Dansky
Executive Director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center
650 724.5786
Expertise: Criminal Law, Criminal Sentencing Policy, Member of California's Little Hoover Commission
Robert Weisberg
Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law
650 723.0612
Expertise: Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Criminal Procedure

Drug sentencing - U.S. Sentencing Commission Votes to Ease Crack Sentences

Kara Dansky
Executive Director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center
650 724.5786
Expertise: Criminal Law, Criminal Sentencing Policy, Member of California's Little Hoover Commission
Robert Weisberg
Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law
650 723.0612
Expertise: Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Criminal Procedure

U.S. Business: Facebook Privacy Concerns

Lauren Gelman
Executive Director, Center for Internet and Society
650 724.3358
Expertise: New Technologies and the Law, Law, Technology, and Privacy

U.S. Business: Writers' Strike

William B. Gould IV
Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus
650 723.2111
Expertise: Comparative Law, Labor and Employment Law, Sports and Entertainment Law (Bond's Legacy, Upcoming Mitchell Report)

U.S. Business: Shareholder Lawsuits

Joseph A. Grundfest
W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business, Co-director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance
650 723.0458
Expertise: Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Venture Capital

U.S. Business: Securities Fraud

Joseph A. Grundfest
W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business, Co-director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance
650 723.0458
Expertise: Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Venture Capital

U.S. Business: Stock Option Backdating

Joseph A. Grundfest
W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business, Co-director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance
650 723.0458
Expertise: Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Venture Capital

U.S. Business: Insider Trading

Joseph A. Grundfest
W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business, Co-director of the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance
650 723.0458
Expertise: Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Venture Capital

Product Liability Suits

Alan O. Sykes
Professor of Law
650 723.0178
Expertise: Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Venture Capital

Consumer Product Safety Overhaul

Alan O. Sykes
Professor of Law
650 723.0178
Expertise: Corporate Law, Securities Regulation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Venture Capital

Barry Bonds / Mitchell Report

William B. Gould IV
Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus
650 723.2111
Expertise: Comparative Law, Labor and Employment Law, Sports and Entertainment Law (Bond's Legacy, Upcoming Mitchell Report)
Robert Weisberg
Edwin E., Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law
650 723.0612
Expertise: Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Criminal Procedure

Iran in Iraq/Iran Nuclear Program

Allen S. Weiner
Senior Lecturer in Law and Co-director of the Center on International Conflict and Resolution
650 724.5892 or 650 724.4818
Expertise: Contemporary Security Threats, International Security, Nuclear Proliferation, International Law, Laws of War, Human Rights

Russia/Presidential Succession

Allen S. Weiner
Senior Lecturer in Law and Co-director of the Center on International Conflict and Resolution
650 724.5892 or 650 724.4818
Expertise: Contemporary Security Threats, International Security, Nuclear Proliferation, International Law, Laws of War, Human Rights

Palestinian Aid

Allen S. Weiner
Senior Lecturer in Law and Co-director of the Center on International Conflict and Resolution
650 724.5892 or 650 724.4818
Expertise: Contemporary Security Threats, International Security, Nuclear Proliferation, International Law, Laws of War, Human Rights

Pakistan

Allen S. Weiner
Senior Lecturer in Law and Co-director of the Center on International Conflict and Resolution
650 724.5892 or 650 724.4818
Expertise: Contemporary Security Threats, International Security, Nuclear Proliferation, International Law, Laws of War, Human Rights

Darfur

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Professor of Law and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar
650 723.9216
Expertise: International Criminal Law, International Security, Separation of Powers

Bios

G. Marcus Cole

Cole takes an empirical law and economics approach to research questions such as why corporate bankruptcies increasingly are adjudicated in Delaware, and what drives the financial structure of companies backed by venture capital. He has been a national fellow at the Hoover Institution, and has scholarly interests that range from classical liberal political theory to natural law and the history of commercial law. In November 2006, Cole was part of a group of regulatory experts, who, represented by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold federal preemption in Watters v. Wachovia Bank.

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar

Trained as a lawyer and a political scientist, Cuéllar focuses his scholarship on how organizations cope with the legal responsibility for managing complex criminal justice, regulatory, and international security problems. Recent projects address the role of criminal enforcement in managing transnational threats, immigration and refugee policy in the U.S. and the developing world, the scope of "national security" during the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush, the organization of legislative jurisdiction, and the impact of bureaucratic structure on how institutions implement domestic and international legal mandates. Cuellar formerly served as senior advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department's Under Secretary for Enforcement.

Kara Dansky

Dansky is an expert on California sentencing policy and a member of the Little Hoover Commission Advisory Committee on Sentencing Reform. Previously, she was a staff attorney with the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a staff attorney for the Society of Counsel Representing Accused Persons.

Lauren Gelman

In addition to heading up CIS’s litigation and advocacy efforts around free speech, innovation, security, and privacy, Gelman teaches a course at Stanford Law School on Internet privacy. Her research focuses on the legal implications of technologies that increase citizens' opportunity to participate online. Gelman previously was associate director of CIS. Prior to joining Stanford, Gelman was corporate counsel for RealNames Corporation. She also spent six years in Washington, D.C. as the public policy director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and as the associate director of public policy for Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

William B. Gould IV

A prolific scholar of labor and discrimination law, William B. Gould IV has been an influential voice on worker-management relations for over forty years and recently served as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. Professor Gould has been a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators since 1970 and has arbitrated and mediated more than 200 labor disputes, including the 1992 and 1993 salary disputes between the Major League Baseball Players Association and the Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee. Professor Gould is the recipient of five honorary doctorates for his significant contributions in the fields of labor law and labor relations.

Joseph A. Grundfest

Grundfest, a former SEC Commissioner, is a nationally prominent expert on capital markets, corporate governance, and securities litigation. He has served on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisors as counsel and senior economist for legal and regulatory matters. Grundfest heads the award-winning Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and co-directs the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford Law School.

Jenny S. Martinez

Martinez argued the 2004 case of Rumsfeld v. Padilla in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to clarify the constitutional protections available to post-9/11 "enemy combatants" who are U.S. citizens. Martinez performed the rare feat of a clerkship triple crown, clerking on a federal appellate court, the United States Supreme Court (with Justice Stephen Breyer), and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (with Judge Patricia Wald). Martinez's scholarship makes the first major attempt to synthesize and analyze the important new phenomenon of an increasing number of international tribunals operating in a globalized environment, but without any supervening sovereign authority to which they are all bound.

Derek Shaffer

Shaffer specializes in complex litigation matters, particularly those involving governmental bodies and unsettled constitutional and statutory questions. He has variously served as lead counsel and lead associate in several high-profile trial and appellate matters, with clients that have included six states, and in tribunals that have included the United States Supreme Court, numerous United States Courts of Appeals and District Courts, state supreme courts, and the United States Court of Federal Claims.

Deborah A. "Debbie" Sivas

Sivas has been the Director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic since 1997. She is a 1987 Stanford Law School graduate, clerked for a federal court, serves as president of the board for two NGOs, and has litigated many significant environmental cases in federal court on behalf of nonprofit organizations. She served as attorney of record for Center for Biological Diversity v. National Highway Traffic Administration, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Bush administration violated the law by ignoring global warming when it set national gas mileage standards for SUVs and pickup trucks.

Alan O. Sykes

A leading expert on the application of economics to legal problems, Sykes has focused his research on international economic relations. His writing and teaching have encompassed international trade, torts, contracts, insurance, antitrust, and economic analysis of law. He has been a member of the executive committee and the board of the American Law and Economics Association, and currently serves as reporter for the American Law Institute Project on Principles of Trade Law: The World Trade Organization. Sykes is associate editor of the Journal of International Economic Law, and a member of the board of editors of the World Trade Review.

David Victor

David Victor, an expert in the areas of regulation, energy law, and environmental policy, came to Stanford University in 2001 to start the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). The Program focuses on the economic and environmental consequences of energy consumption, and much of Professor Victor's work involves extensive field research in emerging markets (notably China and India) and in some of the world's poorest regions, including in Africa. Professor Victor teaches regulation at the Law School and continues his work at FSI through a joint appointment. Previously, he directed the Science and Technology program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Robert Weisberg

Weisberg is director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center. A frequent commentator and expert on white-collar crime, criminal law and procedure, sentencing, and criminal justice reform, he has served as a consulting attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the California Appellate Project, working on death penalty litigation in the federal courts. He is also versed in commercial law and secured transactions.