Wal-Mart Matters

October 20-21, 2006
Co-sponsored by Connecticut Law Review and Connecticut Journal of International Law. Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and the largest private employer in the United States. Due to its size and dominance, the company touches nearly every aspect of our economic and legal systems. Every day new reports surface that describe the far-reaching effects of Wal-Mart's influence, in areas as diverse as banking, ERISA, civil rights, and fashion. The symposium will focus on the effects of Wal-Mart's business practices on law, the national and global economy, business culture, and society more broadly. The symposium will bring together a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, and other experts to explore and debate the virtues and vices of Wal-Mart and to discuss how law should respond to its phenomenal growth and influence. Topics to be addressed include: the Dukes class action lawsuit, Wal-Mart's global reach, organized labor, immigration, banking and anti-trust. The symposium, to be published in Connecticut Law Review, will be the first of its kind summarized in a law review publication.

Friday, October 20, 2006: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Keynote Speakers

Ron Galloway, Producer/Director of Why Wal-Mart Works
Bob Ortega, Author of In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, the World's Most Powerful Retailer, Journalist, and Assistant Professor at the Ryerson University's School of Journalism, Toronto

Something in Common? Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Joseph M. Sellers, Partner, Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld, & Toll, PLLC
Evelyn Becker, Partner, O'Melveny & Myers, LLP

Wal-Mart: The New Superpower

Larry Catá Backer, Professor of Law, The Penn State Dickenson School of Law
Chris Jochnick, Director of Private Sector Engagement, Oxfam America
Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies, Trinity College
René Reich-Graefe, Associate Professor of Law, Western New England School of Law
Chris Tilly, Professor of Regional Economic and Social Development, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Getting Organized: Wal-Mart and Labor

Richard Michael Fischl, Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law
Erin Johansson, Research Associate, American Rights at Work
John Stout, Barrister & Solicitor, Cavalluzzo, Hayes, Shilton, McIntyre & Cornish, LLP

Crossing Boundaries: Wal-Mart and Immigration Law

Gilberto M. Garcia, Attorney, Garcia & Kricko
Maurice Hew, Jr., Assistant Clinical Professor, Thurgood Marshall School of Law
M. Isabel Medina, Ferris Family Distinguished Professorship, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Michael Wishnie, Clinical Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Saturday, October 21, 2006: 8:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

The "Wal-Mart Effect": How It Affects Individuals

Nelson Lichtenstein, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Orly Lobel, Assistant Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Katharine Silbaugh, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Ohio University, Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and Author of The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

Breaking Up the Big Box: Trade Regulation and Wal-Mart

Albert A. Foer, President, American Antitrust Institute
Barry W. Poulson, Professor of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder
Mark Williams, Associate Professor of Law, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Regulating Wal-Mart: Is Bigger Better in Banking?

Anna Gelpern, Professor of Law, The State University of New Jersey, Rutgers-Newark
Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr., Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

Admission is free. Continental breakfast and lunch provided to those who RSVP.

For information, please contact Connecticut Law Review at (860) 570-5331 or via email.

If you are interested in purchasing the Wal-Mart Matters Symposium issue to be published by the Connecticut Law Review, please call (860) 570-5331. The cost of the issue will be $6.00.

If you require reasonable accommodations for a disability, please contact Jane Thierfeld Brown at (860) 570-5132 at least two weeks in advance.

The "Wal-Mart" trademark is owned by Wal-Mart. The trademark is being used without permission. The publication of the trademark is not authorized by, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owner.