Business Commons^™

Corporations And The 99%: Team Production Revisited, Shlomitt Azgad-Tromer

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This Article explores the legal manifestation of the interaction between the general public and the public corporation. Revisiting team production analysis, this Article redefines the corporate team and argues that while several constituencies indeed form part of the corporate team, others are exogenous to the corporate enterprise. Employees, suppliers and financiers contribute together to the common corporate enterprise, enjoying a long-term relational contract with the corporation, while retail consumers contract with the corporation at arm’s length, and other people living alongside the corporation do not contract with it at all. Under this organizational model, the general public may participate in …

World Tours And The Summer Olympics: Recent Pitfalls Under The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act In The Areas Of Gifts, Entertainment, And Travel, Jon Jordan

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In the spring of 2015, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission brought two significant Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases involving gifts, entertainment, and travel. The SEC brought the case of In the Matter of FLIR Systems involving FCPA violations concerning the financing of a “world tour” of personal travel for government officials. The SEC then filed the case of In the Matter of BHP Billiton involving FCPA violations concerning the sponsored attendance of foreign officials at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. These landmark cases affirm previous guidance by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Department …

The Changing Face Of Corporate Compliance And Corporate Governance, Sean J. Griffith, Steve Thel, Miriam Baer, Geoffrey P. Miller, Gerald Manwah, Stuart Breslow, Alan Cohen, Martin Grant, Henry Klehm Iii, Allen Meyer, Thomas C. Baxter Jr.

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

We are pleased to present this Symposium on the revolution in corporate compliance and its evolution in the financial services industry. This is the annual symposium hosted by the Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law on significant topics in the realm of business law.

The format of the symposium is as follows. It begins with an introduction by Professor Sean Griffith, followed by edited transcripts of the two panel discussions and the keynote address.

The first panel is “Revolution: Challenging Corporate Norms?” and addresses the question of whether the revolution in corporate compliance challenges the established norms of corporate …

What We Talk About When We Talk About Voting: Efficiency And The Error In Empty Voting, Patricia Beck

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Under the shareholder primacy model, shareholders exercise voting power because their votes are wealth maximizing and efficient. The practice of decoupling, or the strategic separation of the right to vote on a share from the economic ownership of that share, undermines this efficiency. The decoupled investor’s interests are not aligned with maximizing the value of the corporation and decoupled investors have, to the detriment of all other shareholders, used their voting power to dictate inefficient corporate decisions. This Note advocates for proxy card disclosure of decoupled shares and subsequent voiding of the decoupled votes. In this way, only those shares …

Are We Ready For The Next Financial Crisis?, Matthew Diller, Eic F. Grossman, Richard K. Kim, Richard Squire, David M. Gallagher Jr.

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The Symposium was held at Fordham University School of Law on October 30, 2015. It has been edited to remove minor cadences of speech that appear awkward in writing and to provide sources and references to other explanatory material with respect to certain statements made by the speakers.

Defining "Material, Nonpublic": What Should Constitute Illegal Insider Information?, Cindy A. Schipani, H. Nejat Seyhun

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

It has been over fifty years since the United States Securities and Exchange Commission held that insider trading on material, nonpublic information is illegal, and despite the passage of the Insider Trading Sanctions Act in 1984, Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act in 1988, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, there is still no clear definition of “material, nonpublic information.” This Article argues that the ambiguity of what constitutes illegal insider information enables corporate insiders to engage in profitable transactions without legal consequences. Furthermore, we argue and provide evidence that the necessity of showing a tipper’s personal benefit creates …

An Overview Of The Sec's Whistleblower Award Program, Michael H. Hurwitz, Jonathan Kovacs

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In 2010, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in response to the stock market collapse and economic downturn as well as the Bernard Madoff scandal and other well-publicized frauds perpetrated against investors. Among its numerous provisions, the Dodd-Frank Act amended the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to add a new section—Section 21F—entitled “Securities Whistleblower Incentives and Protection.” The Dodd- Frank Act also directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to establish an Office of the Whistleblower to administer the provisions of the new section. The Commission subsequently adopted regulations that went into effect on August 12, …

Sunlight Bylaws And Reciprocal Disclosures, Grace Lee Mead

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Publicly-traded companies have the power to pass sunlight bylaws to address hedge fund activism. Sunlight bylaws would require activist hedge funds to publicly disclose any strategic proposals and their financial interests in companies earlier and at thresholds lower than current securities laws. Sunlight bylaws would also require disclosure of additional information, including: (1) the percentage of the fund’s portfolio invested in the company; (2) the fund manager’s compensation; (3) the fund manager’s investment in the fund; (4) the fund’s portfolio turnover; and (5) the fund’s prior holding periods after any announcements of an ownership interest and a strategic proposal. Academic …

The Overstated Absolute Priority Rule, Stephen J. Lubben

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Private Equity's Overleveraging Of Portfolio Companies, Sophia Agathis

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

With record-low interest rates, private equity has seen unparalleled activity in recent years. Though thriving, private equity firms have proved to be guilty of overleveraging their portfolio companies as general partners. The results of overleveraging have been varied. At one end, firms seem dedicated to a portfolio company’s restructuring, investing further and pledging more capital in hopes of future growth. At the other end, firms wishing to exit their investment, redeem debt previously given to a portfolio company at a premium and engage in a quick sale thereafter, leaving that company unable to satisfy its future obligations. Firms that engage …

A Single Call: The Need To Amend The Parent-Subsidiary Relationship Under The Ftaia In View Of Motorola Mobility, Catherine E. Cognetti

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In Motorola Mobility, LLC v. AU Optronics Corporation, the Seventh Circuit dismissed Motorola’s Sherman Act claims under the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvement Act. In doing so, they held that Motorola’s American parent corporation was a separate entity from their foreign subsidiaries, and thus barred from bringing suit under the indirect purchaser doctrine. The effect of the Seventh Circuit’s decision precluded injured purchasers from recovering damages under the Sherman Act—Motorola’s subsidiaries could not sue because their injuries occurred abroad, while Motorola could not sue because it did not make direct purchases from the antitrust violators.

Courts have often considered a parent …

The Varieties Of Investment Management Law, Harvey Bines, Steve Thel

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The duty of prudence enunciated by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1830 in Amory v. Harvard College has come to stand as a talisman for the duties of investment managers. However, the variety of arrangements that are now used to manage other people’s money could not have been foreseen in 1830. Investment management is now subject to a collection of largely self-contained statutory and common-law systems. Although related in principle, they differ extensively in the investment management activities they affect and in the specific obligations they impose. Now seldom does a single statutory or common- law system cover …

Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them: How Mini-Cfpas And Surety Bonds Could Make A World With Debt Settlement Companies More Bearable, Jasmine S. Chean

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Debt settlement companies can offer a simple and valuable means of resolving consumer debt. However, many debt settlement companies choose to engage in unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices at the expense of desperate debt-ridden consumers, making it an unrealistic option of debt relief. Due to the unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices by some debt settlement companies, the regulatory regime has been trending towards increased regulation. However, the lack of enforcement and severity of existing regulations causes persistent problems in the debt settlement industry, resulting in increased consumer debt instead of consumer debt relief. This Note advocates …

Qualified Mortgages & Government Reverse Redlining: How The Cfpb's Qualified Mortgage Regulations Will Handicap The Availability Of Credit To Minority Borrowers, Patrick T. O'Keefe

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Imprudent underwriting and mortgage origination in the years leading up to the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008 was determined to be one of its predominant causes. As a result, partly in an effort to protect consumers and ensure that lending institutions did not relapse into poor mortgage origination practices, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This Note examines the qualified mortgage rule promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act. This rule is intended to ensure that borrowers receive loans that are not unfair, deceptive, or abusive, and to …

The Fifteenth Annual Albert A. Destefano Lecture On Corporate, Securities, & Financial Law At The Fordham Corporate Law Center, Frederick H. Alexander, Chris Cernich, Mark Lebovitch, Norman M. Monhait, Andrew J. Pincus

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Betwixt And Between: Regulating The Shared Economy, Abbey Stemler

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.