My Emboldening Experience at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Conference (ALSB) in Portland, Oregon
This blog post was written by Tayo Zenger ’21, who attended the Academy of Legal Studies in Business conference in Portland, Oregon on behalf of Babson to accept an Honorable Mention Award…
During the first week of August (10th-13th), I had the pleasure of attending that Academy of Legal Studies in Business annual conference in Portland, Oregon. In addition to accepting the Honorable Mention award for the paper, I was given the opportunity to present my research in front of a collection of professors and students who had also been selected to present. The conference proved not only to be a great experience to discover new ways to interpret topics through law but also a chance to explore the city of Portland.
The paper I had submitted to the conference and presented, titled “Do Executive Orders That Involve Immigration Such As DACA Violate the Administrative 
Procedure Act” was originally intended for my Business Law class, taught by Professor Sulkowski. During the spring semester prior to the conference, my class was assigned with a legal research paper, intended to heighten our interest in legal studies and understand the crucial components of a legal research paper. The paper obliged me to complete heavy research, made of mostly primary sources, and left me with the feeling that I had mastered the topic enough to produce a quality paper while encouraging me to further my research.
The paper’s topics consisted of executive orders, immigration, and the Administrative Procedure Act, a statute that governs the way that administrative agencies enact regulations. In 2012, President Obama announced the implementation of the executive order, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which held the purpose of provided deferred deportation and other benefits to minors who had been brought to the country illegally. Since is announcing, it has received a great deal of criticism, with many lawmakers claiming it violating the Administrative Procedure Act. By offering prior examples of executive orders that tackled immigration, judicial cases, and an analysis of the limits to presidential power, I was able to prove that executive orders that involve immigration are not inherently illegal and that DACA is valid until the Supreme Court states otherwise.
In addition to presenting about a topic that is incredibly relevant to today’s political climate, I was able to hear the presentations of other students who had also chosen very interesting topics to explore. One presentation that particularly interested me was where a student investigated the legal reaction to the pharmaceutical industry and the opioid crisis. The student not only recognized the significance of the pharmaceutical industry and the number of opioids being consumed by Americans but also revealed how the industry has bypassed any punishment for the deaths as a result of opioid overdoses.
The ALSB conference was a great experience to heighten my interest in legal studies to an extent in which I want to explore other topics that correlate to law and potentially construct another paper during my personal time. I would like to thank Babson College and specifically Professor Sulkowski for helping me realize my genuine interest in law. I have learned that there is no topic that cannot be explored with law and encourage anyone who may have a hidden or apparent interest in law to submit a paper to the Academy of Legal Studies in Business competition.