Robert Sprague

Associate Professor

J.D., University of Denver
M.B.A., University of Southern California
B.S.B.A., University of Denver

Recent/Upcoming Presentations

Keynote Speaker, Social Networking in the Workplace: The Research, Business Ethics: What’s the Research?—What’s the Practice?, Poe Center for Business Ethics, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, October 26, 2012.

Technology, Social Media, and Privacy Issues in Employment and Labor Law, University of Washburn School of Law Labor and Employment Symposium, February 28, 2013. Invited panelist.

Concerns for the Multinational Company. Fordham Law School Center on Law and Information Policy Symposium on Privacy and Employment in the Digital Society, March 19, 2013. Invited panelist.

Social Media: The Separation of Work & Play. American Bar Association Section of Labor & Employment Law National Symposium on Technology and Labor and Employment Law, Berkeley, California, April 21 – 23, 2013. Invited panelist.

An Ontology of Privacy Law Derived from Published Articles Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation Probabilistic Topic Modeling. 2013 Privacy Law Scholars Conference, jointly sponsored by the Berkeley Law School Center for Law & Technology and the George Washington University Law School, Berkeley, California, June 6 – 7, 2013.

Current Projects

 Law for Entrepreneurs and Owners of Small Businesses eTextbook. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business (Aspen College Series). In progress

Workplace Data: Law & Litigation. ABA/Bloomberg BNA. Invited to serve as Editor in Chief. In progress.

An Ontology of Privacy Law Derived from Published Articles Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation Probabilistic Topic Modeling, with Nicole Barberis. In progress.

Recent Publications

Book

Robert Sprague. 2010. Legal Guide for Small Business. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association. Sole author of second edition update; by invitation.

Journal Articles

Robert Sprague. (forthcoming 2013). Online Social Media and the End of the Employment-at-Will Doctrine, 52 Washburn Law Journal

Robert Sprague. 2012. Facebook Meets the NLRB: Employee Online Communications and Unfair Labor Practices, 14 University of  Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law 957.

Robert Sprague & Mary Ellen Wells. 2012. The Supreme Court as Prometheus: Breathing Life Into the Corporate Supercitizen, 49 American Business Law Journal 507.

Lothar Determann and Robert Sprague. 2011.  Intrusive Monitoring: Employee Privacy Expectations are Reasonable in Europe, Destroyed in the United States. 26 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 979.

Robert Sprague. 2011.  Invasion of the Social Networks: Blurring the Line between Personal Life and the Employment Relationship. 50 University of  Louisville Law Review 1.

Robert Sprague and Aaron Lyttle. 2010. Shareholder Primacy and the Business Judgment Rule: Arguments for Expanded Corporate Democracy. 16 Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance 1.

Robert Sprague and Mary Ellen Wells. 2010. Regulating Online Buzz Marketing: Untangling a Web of Deceit. 47 American Business Law Journal 415.

Robert Sprague. 2010. Beyond Shareholder Value: Normative Standards for Sustainable Corporate Governance.  1 William & Mary Business Law Review 47. Inaugural issue.

Sean Valentine, Gary Fleischman, Robert Sprague, and Lynn Godkin. 2010. Exploring the Ethicality of Firing Employees Who Blog. 49 Human Resource Management 87.

Roland E. Kidwell and Robert Sprague. 2009. Electronic Surveillance in the Global Workplace: Laws, Ethics, Research and Practice. 24 New Technology, Work and Employment 194.

Robert Sprague and Corey Ciocchetti. 2009. Preserving Identities: Protecting Personal Identifying Information Through Enhanced Privacy Policies and Laws. 19 Albany Law Journal of Science & Technology 91.

Robert Sprague. 2008. Orwell Was An Optimist: The Evolution of Privacy in the United States and Its De-evolution for American Employees. 42 John Marshall Law Review 83.

Robert Sprague. 2008. Rethinking Information Privacy in an Age of Online Transparency. 25 Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal 395. By invitation.

Robert Sprague and Karen L. Page. 2008. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Entrepreneur: Protecting Naïve Issuers from Sophisticated Investors. 8 Wyoming Law Review 167.

Robert Sprague. 2007. Business Blogs and Commercial Speech: A New Analytical Framework for the 21^st Century. 44 American Business Law Journal 127.

Robert Sprague. 2007. Fired for Blogging: Are There Legal Protections for Employees Who Blog? 9 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor & Employment Law 355. (Now the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law.)

Robert Sprague. 2007. Googling Job Applicants: Incorporating Personal Information into Hiring Decisions. 23 The Labor Lawyer 19. Selected for "The Best Articles Published by the ABA" issue of GPSolo Magazine, published by the American Bar Association (ABA) General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division, Vol. 25, No. 2, p. 40 (March 2008).

Robert Sprague. 2007. From Taylorism to the Omnipticon: Expanding Employee Surveillance Beyond the Workplace. 25 John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law 1.

Karen L. Page and Robert Sprague. 2006. Entrepreneur-VC Negotiations: Investigating the Power Gap. 2 Journal of Business and Leadership 46.

Book Chapters

Robert Sprague. 2010. Legal Issues Associated with Emerging Social Interaction Technologies. Handbook of Research on Social Interaction Technologies and Collaboration Software: Concepts and Trends, p. 351 (T. Dumova & R. Fiordo, eds.).

Robert Sprague. 2009. Legal Frameworks for Data Mining and Privacy. Social Implications of Data Mining and Information Privacy: Interdisciplinary Frameworks and Solutions, p. 181 (E. Eyob, ed.).

Robert Sprague. 2008. Employee Privacy in Virtual Workplaces. Handbook of Research on Virtual Workplaces and the New Nature of Business Practices, p. 181 (P. Zemliansky & K. St. Amant, eds.).

Refereed Proceedings

Bound by Laws, or by Values? Cultural Dimensions, Stewardship Mentality, and Protection of Minority Owners in Family Firms, with Charles Stevens and Roland E. Kidwell. To be presented at the International Family Enterprise Research Academy 2013 Annual Conference, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, July 2 – 5, 2013. Accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings.

Robert Sprague & Nicole Barberis, An Ontology of Privacy Law Derived from Probabilistic Topic Modeling Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation. 2013 Privacy Law Scholars Conference, jointly sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley Law School and the George Washington University Law School, Berkeley, California, June 6 – 7, 2013. Selected for conference workshop presentation and publication in the refereed conference proceedings.

Robert Sprague & Roland E. Kidwell, Protecting Minority Owners of Small and Family-Owned Firms. Presented at and accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, August 7 – 11, 2012.

Robert Sprague, Facebook Meets the NLRB: Employee Online Postings and Unfair Labor Practices. To be presented at the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 28 – 30, 2012. To be published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Selected as the Conference Distinguished Paper from the Legal Studies Track.

Robert Sprague & Mary Ellen Wells, The Supreme Court as Prometheus: Breathing Life into the Corporate Supercitizen. Presented at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 10 – 13, 2011. Published in the peer-reviewed proceedings, Academy of Legal Studies in Business National Proceedings, Vol. 42.

Robert Sprague & Aaron J. Lyttle, Shareholder Primacy and the Business Judgment Rule: Arguments for Expanded Shareholder Democracy.  Presented at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Richmond, Virginia, August 4 - 7, 2010.  Published in the peer-reviewed proceedings, Academy of Legal Studies in Business National Proceedings, Vol. 41.  Winner, Holmes-Cardozo Award for Distinguished Conference Proceedings Submission.

Robert Sprague, Cloud Privacy: Normative Standards for Information Privacy Management Within Cloud Computing. Presented at the Intelligent Information Privacy Management Symposium, Stanford Center of Computers and Law, Stanford University, March 22 - 24, 2010. Published in the refereed conference proceedings.

Robert Sprague & Aaron J. Lyttle, Financial Crisis: Impetus for Restoring Corporate Democracy. Presented at the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 24 - 26, 2010. Published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Selected as the Conference Distinguished Paper from the Legal Studies Track.

Honors and Awards

2013, University of Wyoming College of Business Advisory Board Faculty Award.

2009 - 2010, University of Wyoming College of Business Outstanding Junior Research Award.

2007 - 2010, Governor Geringer Award for Promising Young Scholars.

2006 - 2007, University of Wyoming College of Business Outstanding Junior Research Award.

Conference Distinguished Paper from the Legal Studies Track: Robert Sprague, Facebook Meets the NLRB: Employee Online Postings and Unfair Labor Practices. To be presented at the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 28 – 30, 2012. To be published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings.

Outstanding Proceedings Paper: Robert Sprague, Social Networks and Employment Relationships: Where to Draw the Line.  Presented at and published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings of the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 23 - 25, 2011.

Holmes-Cardozo Award for Distinguished Conference Proceedings Submission: Robert Sprague & Aaron J. Lyttle, Shareholder Primacy and the Business Judgment Rule: Arguments for Expanded Shareholder Democracy.  Presented at and published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings, Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Conference, Richmond, Virginia, August 4 - 7, 2010.

Conference Distinguished Paper from the Legal Studies Track: Robert Sprague & Aaron J. Lyttle, Financial Crisis: Impetus for Restoring Corporate Democracy.  Presented at and published in the refereed proceedings of the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 24 - 26, 2010.

Best Proceedings Paper: Robert Sprague and Corey Ciocchetti (University of Denver). Protecting Personally Identifying Information in a High-Tech World.  Presented at and published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings of the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, April 2 - 4, 2008.

Best of American Bar Association Sections publications: Googling Job Applicants: Incorporating Personal Information into Hiring Decisions. The Labor Lawyer, 23(1), 19-40. Selected for "The Best Articles Published by the ABA" issue of GPSolo Magazine, published by the American Bar Association (ABA) General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division, Vol. 25, No. 2, p. 40 (March 2008).

Best Proceedings Paper:  Robert Sprague, Director Privacy and Corporate Governance: 21st Century Standards. Presented at and published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings of the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International/Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business (MALSB) Annual Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 28 - 30, 2007.

Service Activities

Articles Editor, American Business Law Journal

Articles Editor, Academy of Legal Studies in Business Journal of Employment & Labor Law (2008-2010)

Ad Hoc Reviewer: Policy & Internet, Oxford Internet Institute.

Ad Hoc Reviewer: Sixth International Workshop on Requirements Engineering & Law, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, July 15 – 16, 2013.

Ad Hoc Reviewer: Labour Market and Social Inclusion: Employment by Digital Service and Network (EDiSNet); research proposal submitted to the European Science Foundation. By invitation.

Ad Hoc Articles Reviewer: Midwest Law Journal; Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

Member, Advisory Board, Privacy Foundation, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Professional Memberships:

Academy of Legal Studies in Business

        Past President, Employment Law Section

Midwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business

       Past President

Rocky Mountain Academy of Legal Studies in Business

Past President