Alum Attracts International Attention

Andy Spalding ’03 is quietly but inexorably emerging from under the judicial radar as a notable international legal authority, suggesting a promising future as a law professor.

In August, The Wall Street Journal featured Andy’s evaluation of the federal government’s stepped-up pursuit of overseas bribery by corporations.

The Journal sought him out in large part because he currently is a Fulbright scholar in Mumbai, India, and a former high-energy Washington, D.C., securities-fraud lawyer who now is studying the impact of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in emerging markets.

The article appreciably raised his professional profile, gaining him increased access to important policy makers both in the U.S. and in India, but Andy is not interested primarily in fame or power. Instead, he is driven to use this access to make a difference.

His immediate, short-term goal is to solve a relatively unforeseen dilemma produced by the U.S. government’s increased attention to the FCPA. Although enhanced FCPA enforcement does appear to deter bribery, it also rather unexpectedly deters investment in emerging markets, functioning something like a de facto economic sanction.

For Andy, this development is alarming, given the potentially historic opportunities for overcoming poverty in these countries. He is seeking, therefore, to help develop some efficacious solutions to this dilemma and to share them among businesspeople and lawyers in the U.S. and India.

His long-term goal is to earn a professorship in a law school, and he already has taken a noteworthy step, serving as a visiting scholar in the Securities Law course at the University of Mumbai’s Government Law College. To date he has taught significant modules comparing U.S. and Indian business law.

Andy writes, “I have realized . . . that my true passions are for policy and education. I love to reflect on the broader course of public policy and the law, and I love to see people's minds grow.”

Not surprisingly, Andy said he was inspired to teach by “some truly remarkable professors--Bybee, Markell, Bryant, Tobias, McAffee, and others--who showed me that these goals can be pursued at the same time, with great effectiveness.”

In the classroom, Andy said he would “hope to help students see the broader policy implications and social impact of their work, and for these to be a source of personal fulfillment.”

As a researcher, he said he would “hope to promote a greater sophistication in understanding the impact of anti-bribery legislation in emerging markets, so that we can effectively deter bribery while also promoting development.”

After receiving his J.D. from the Boyd School of Law, Andy clerked first for U.S. District Court Judge Howard D. McKibben and then for Ninth Circuit Court Judge Jay S. Bybee.

Next, he spent two and a half years as a Securities Litigation and Enforcement Associate for a Washington, D.C., law firm, where he represented companies in SEC enforcement proceedings while simultaneously performing pro bono work that included representing a Latina domestic abuse victim before the U.S Citizen and Immigrations Service.

More recently, Andy served as Special Assistant to the General Counsel, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he represented the U.S government in federal appellate litigation.

He has been invited to present papers at an American Bar Association colloquium, the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and the University of Mumbai, India, Government Law College.

Andy holds a B.S. in politics from Whitman College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.