b'Jerry Carlson presenting to a full auditoriumOrin Ethics SymposiumIn 2013, Kevyn D. Orr stepped down as a restructuring expertOrins Legacyat the global law firm Jones Day to become the City ofThose are judgement calls and all of you, because youll be Detroits newest emergency manager. His mission: save thein business, are going to have to make those calls, he said, Motor City from financial collapse.addressing the students. Over the next two years, Orr oversaw the largest and mostThe Orin Ethics Symposium focuses on the intersection complicated municipal bankruptcy proceeding in the nationsof ethics and accounting. The annual lecture series was made history. Today, the city enjoys balanced budgets, revenuepossible by Richard Orin, who received a business adminis-increases and money in the bank. However, the struggle totration degree from Mizzou in 1949. He later partnered with get there was fraught with wrenching financial and ethicalthe Trulaske College of Business in 2002 to create the lecture decisions that werent always easy to make but ultimately ledseries which brings in key figures in business ethics, corporate to a renaissance of the city.governance and regulation to raise awareness about ethics Orr, who has since returned to Jones Day as partner-in- issues in accountancy, business and law.charge of U.S. offices, talked about those challenges and theThis was the first symposium since Orins passing earlier lessons he learned during the School of Accountancys annualthis year on June 9. To mark the occasion, the Orin family Richard M. Orin Ethics Symposium on Friday, Oct. 6, at thededicated a bench in his honor on the north side of Cornell Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business. Hundreds ofHall. His daughter, Rhonda Eisenstein, and grandsons, Eric students, faculty, staff and community members filled BushWeissmann and Matthew Eisenstein, were in attendance. Auditorium in Cornell Hall to hear Orrs retrospective andThe four pillars of my grandfathers life were dedication how his decisions in Detroit were rooted in ethics.to service, commitment to family, passion for hard work and The challenge is keeping your true north, Orr said,love for ethics and education, Weissmann said. My grand-adding that some ethical dilemmas in business are simple tofathers life and legacy lives on through this symposium. He resolve. You cant steal. Its wrong. Its morally and ethicallywould want you to know that its good to be right, but it is wrong. But there are other situations that arent so simple.more important to do the right thing, especially when the For example, when facing bankruptcy, do you pay off cred- right thing is hard. itors or put the money toward securing health care and pensions for retirees? This was an ethical dilemma Orr faced while resolving issues in Detroit. 24 School of Accountancy2023 Newsmagazine 25'