Robert Wechsler's blog

According to an article in today's New York Times, a spokesperson for Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, spoke in defense of an agreement made with Bristol-Myers Squibb to avoid its prosecution, which agreement called for the company to endow a chair at Seton Hall University Law School, which happens to be Mr. Christie's alma mater. The spokesperson said that the...

When should governments provide counsel for officials who have had an ethics complaint brought against them? This has become a big issue recently in my state, Connecticut.

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This Sunday New York Times' front-page feature on how doctors are recognizing the value (ethical and financial) of apologizing provides a good opportunity to bring up again what I consider to be one of the most important topics in local government ethics.

I wrote about apology in local government in July 2006, and then in March 2007 followed it up with...

Actuary Jonathan Schwartz has received no funds from City Ethics. But it may seem like that from how perfectly today's front-page New York Times article follows up on the blog entry I posted yesterday.

In yesterday's blog entry, I argued that governments and public sector unions do not have the same right as businesses and ordinary unions to put information in a light that helps their cause. ...

The city of Vallejo, California (pop. 117,000) is about to file for bankruptcy, primarily, it appears, to allow it to void union contracts and have a bankruptcy judge rather than negotiations work out a new contract. Sajan George, an adviser to struggling public entities, has said, "There's a wave of this coming across the U.S. What happens in Vallejo could definitely set a...

A quote from a lawyer in an article in today's New York Times brought me back to what I recently promised to discuss at the end of a blog entry about Elizabeth Wolgast's book, Ethics of an Artificial Person: Lost Responsibility in Professions and Organizations.

Daniel K. Webb, the head of Detroit Mayor Kwame...