Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Welcome Our July Guest Blogger

Post author:Edward A. Fallone
Post published:July 4, 2017
Post category:Marquette Law School Pro Bono Uncategorized

On this sunny Fourth of July, please join me in welcoming our Student Blogger for the month of July, Alex Castro.

Alex is currently a rising 3L at Marquette University Law School. He was born and raised in south Florida and graduated from the University of Florida in 2014. He has a life-long interest in sports, music and traveling. Alex hopes to pursue a career in corporate and business transactional law, and this summer he is working for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company in Milwaukee. He is also participating in the Law School’s Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. During his law school career, Alex has been active in the Hispanic community, and he plans on continuing his commitment to inclusion and diversity during his legal career through his membership in professional and legal organizations.

Welcome, Alex, and we look forward to reading your posts.

Going Beyond Police Patrols to Problem-Solving Policing

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:July 3, 2017
Post category:Criminal Law & Process Public Speakers at Marquette

Doing police patrol work is hard, but it often is pretty routine. An officer drives around, waits for calls and responds to them, deals with specific incidents, and writes reports about them. “There’s a simplicity in it,” said Michael Scott, a former police officer and police chief.

But if police work is to be done in the most effective way, it needs to go beyond that routine, Scott said. It needs to aim to deal with or at least understand problems that underlie so many instances of crime, disorder, or other trouble.

That explains why Scott has become the director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, an organization which promotes exactly that problem-solving approach to police work. He is also a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He was previously a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison.

FCPA Enforcement in the Trump Administration: Nevertheless, It Persists

Post author:Kristen Hardy
Post published:June 30, 2017
Post category:Business Regulation Corporate Law Public

Whenever a new president transitions into the White House, there is almost always a level of uncertainty around how the new administration will handle certain hot button issues now in their purview. As logic dictates, we often look to the newly minted president’s campaign promises to ascertain their stance on these issues. But with the election of President Donald Trump, many of us looked to Twitter and old interviews from the then-businessman turned reality TV maven to determine what would come of a myriad of laws and loose ends. One of the laws that many speculated could come under attack is rooted in preventing corporate corruption, and geared towards the promotion of respectable business practices, both domestically and internationally – the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 [“FCPA”].

What is the FCPA?

The FCPA ascended from a cauldron of toil and trouble – or more aptly stated, came into existence as a result of corruption, scandal, and an unveiling of the pervasive bribery of foreign officials perpetuated by U.S. companies. The botched break in of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Headquarters at the Watergate office complex ultimately led to the discovery of slush funds used to bribe domestic political parties and certain foreign government officials. In order to conceal these payments, companies misrepresented their corporate financial statements, allowing the cycle of corruption to continue domestically and internationally. These findings not only tainted the view of U.S. businesses, but revealed just how awful corruption is for business. Recognizing the need to restore confidence in U.S. businesses and mitigate future corruption, Congress enacted the FCPA.