Past Symposiums
2020 Symposium: The Interplay of Antitrust Laws and Our Current Business Environment
At the 22nd annual symposium of the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Journal of Business Law held on February 8, 11 antitrust scholars convened at the Law School to speak on topics ranging from big data and merger analysis to pharmaceuticals enforcement.
2019 Symposium: Harmonizing Business Law
On January 26, the Law School’s Journal of Business Law held its annual symposium, featuring several panels of experts that discussed topics such as data privacy, intellectual property, and employment.
The all-day event, titled “Harmonizing Business Law,” was held at the Law School in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation & Crime (C-BERC) at the University of Maryland. The symposium focused on an innovative review of the harmonization of business law in the United States and across national borders. The symposium was also sponsored by law firms Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; and White & Case LLP.
The symposium began with a panel on corruption, contracts, and corporations before moving on to a panel about finance, sharing, and data privacy. The last panel featured eight speakers discussing intellectual property and employment.
2018 Symposium: a Chip Off the Old Block(chain)
On February 3, the Journal of Business Law held its annual symposium at Penn Law.
The symposium, “A Chip Off the Old Block(chain): How Blockchain Technology is Changing Law and Business,” focused on four key issues of blockchain technology: digital currencies, the Delaware Blockchain Initiative, smart contracts, and blockchain regulation. The event included discussions of how blockchain technology will enhance and disrupt the legal industry.
The symposium’s keynote speaker was Caitlin Long, former chairman and president of Symbiont, an enterprise blockchain company. She has been active in Bitcoin since 2012 and blockchain since 2014. Long previously spent 22 years on Wall Street in senior roles, working for Morgan Stanley (2007–2016), Credit Suisse (1997–2007), and Salomon Brothers (1994–1997). During her Wall Street career, she started and ran three new businesses, was a top-ranked equity research analyst for the life insurance sector, and worked directly for co-CEOs on a business restructuring in Zurich. MarketsMedia awarded Long its 2016 Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Blockchain, and Institutional Investor named her to its list of the most influential people in pensions during her final three years on Wall Street. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School (JD, 1994), the Kennedy School of Government (MPP, 1994), and the University of Wyoming (BA, 1990).
2016 Symposium: Innovation and Legal Frontiers
The 2016 symposium consisted of four panels: Lawyering and Disrupting, The Business of Innovation, The Conversation of Regulation, and Starting Up and Winding Down.