Elon Law Professor Eric Fink has provided public service and commentary recently on matters ranging from the role of local governments in addressing the influence of corporations on public policy formation to the legal ethics of unpaid law firm internships.
On January 21, Yes! Weekly, a news publication of North Carolina’s Triad region, published a column authored by Fink advocating the involvement of local governments in efforts to address unfettered corporate influence in the formation of public policy.
“The corrosive effect of corporate power on democracy is very much a local concern,” Fink writes. “Unrestricted corporate money distorts the electoral process, including elections for local government bodies like city councils. Unfettered corporate influence distorts public policy, including policy on core matters of local government responsibility like land use, transportation and education. Given the direct and substantial impact of corporate power on local politics and policy, it is absolutely proper for local government representatives to educate themselves and the people they serve, and to speak up in defense of democracy.”
In December, insights from Fink’s scholarship on the legal ethics of unpaid law firm internships (“No Money, Mo’ Problems: Why Unpaid Law Firm Internships are Illegal & Unethical,” forthcoming in the University of San Francisco Law Review) were explored in two online forums Lexpert Blog and Legal Ethics Forum.
In October, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) appointed Fink to be the union’s designated member of the North Carolina Agricultural Arbitration Commission (NCAAC), an entity established to resolve grievances under the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the North Carolina Growers Association.
“This is a very exciting opportunity to participate in a process that extends workplace protection to a particularly vulnerable group of workers,” Fink said.
In September, Fink participated in a forum at Elon University exploring the 2012 Chicago teachers union strike and a forum at Elon Law about the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and corporate political influence.
In August, Fink was quoted in an extensive report on the anticipated closing of Tamms Correctional Center in Illinois and related labor questions.
More information about Elon Law Professor Eric Fink is available here.