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Ending Litigation And Financial Windfalls On Time-Barred Debts, Marc C. Mcallister Jan 2018

Ending Litigation And Financial Windfalls On Time-Barred Debts, Marc C. Mcallister

Washington and Lee Law Review

A trap for unsophisticated debtors, debt collectors often attempt to collect time-barred debts through written offers to settle those debts for a fraction of what is owed. Debtors typically respond to such offers in one of four ways. First, some debtors simply pay the offered settlement amount, usually 10%–40% of the total outstanding debt, thereby satisfying the debt in full. Second, those who wish to eliminate the debt but cannot pay the entire offered settlement amount will instead make a small payment, unwittingly reviving the statute of limitations on collections and making the entire debt judicially enforceable for several years …


Canons Of Construction For Dysfunctional Statutes: A Comment On Bennett, Paul G. Mahoney Jan 2018

Canons Of Construction For Dysfunctional Statutes: A Comment On Bennett, Paul G. Mahoney

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Whistling Loud And Clear: Applying Chevron To Subsection 21f Of Dodd–Frank, Shaun M. Bennett Jan 2018

Whistling Loud And Clear: Applying Chevron To Subsection 21f Of Dodd–Frank, Shaun M. Bennett

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Note addresses a circuit court split arising from a portion of the anti-retaliation provisions in the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Subsection 21F’s retaliation prohibitions apply to those employers whose employees make required or protected disclosures under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) or any other rule or regulation under the SEC’s jurisdiction. SOX provides anti -retaliation protections — similar to those available under Dodd–Frank — for employees of publicly traded companies who report misconduct. However, SOX expressly affords protections to those who provide information to “a Federal regulatory or law enforcement agency; any Member of …


Comment On Whistling Loud And Clear: Applying Chevron To Subsection 21f Of Dodd–Frank, Sarah C. Haan Jan 2018

Comment On Whistling Loud And Clear: Applying Chevron To Subsection 21f Of Dodd–Frank, Sarah C. Haan

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Quacks Or Bootleggers: Who’S Really Regulating Hedge Funds?, Jeremy Kidd Jan 2018

Quacks Or Bootleggers: Who’S Really Regulating Hedge Funds?, Jeremy Kidd

Washington and Lee Law Review

Influential scholars of corporate law have questioned previous federal interventions into corporate governance, calling it quackery. Invoking images of medical malpractice, these critiques have argued persuasively that Congress, in responding to crises, makes policy that disrupts efficient private rules and established state laws. This Article applies the Bootleggers and Baptists theory to show that Dodd–Frank’s hedge fund rules are more than just negligent or reckless, but designed to benefit special interests that compete with the hedge fund model. Those rules offer no solutions to any real or perceived risks arising from hedge fund investing, but might offer an advantage to …


The Debt-Equity Labyrinth: A Case For The New Section 385 Regulations, Alexander Lewitt Sep 2017

The Debt-Equity Labyrinth: A Case For The New Section 385 Regulations, Alexander Lewitt

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


If It Quacks Like A Duck: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority And Federal Jurisdiction, Lesesne Phillips Jun 2017

If It Quacks Like A Duck: The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority And Federal Jurisdiction, Lesesne Phillips

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Intrapreneurship, Darian M. Ibrahim Sep 2016

Intrapreneurship, Darian M. Ibrahim

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article on “intrapreneurship” has several goals. First, it points out that while much of the legal literature on innovation is concerned with startups (entrepreneurship), the innovation that takes place inside our largest corporations (intrapreneurship) is substantial, important, and understudied. Second, the Article observes that while large technology corporations that used to be startups may remain intrapreneurial in culture, intrapreneurship is less common in the aggregate than we might expect. Reasons include organizational bureaucracy, laws favoring entrepreneurship, and what Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School) calls “the innovator’s dilemma.” The innovator’s dilemma is, put simply, that good management causes large corporations …


Collaborative Gatekeepers, Stavros Gadinis, Colby Mangels University Of California - Berkeley Apr 2016

Collaborative Gatekeepers, Stavros Gadinis, Colby Mangels University Of California - Berkeley

Washington and Lee Law Review

In their efforts to hold financial institutions accountable after the 2007 financial crisis, U.S. regulators have repeatedly turned to anti-money-laundering laws. Initially designed to fight drug cartels and terrorists, these laws have recently yielded billion-dollar fines for all types of bank engagement in fraud and have spurred an overhaul of financial institutions’ internal compliance. This increased reliance on anti-money-laundering laws, we argue, is due to distinct features that can better help regulators gain insights into financial fraud. Most other financial laws enlist private firms as gatekeepers and hold them liable if they knowingly or negligently engage in client fraud. Yet, …


Living In A Material World: Defining “Materiality” In The Municipal Bond Market And Rule 15c2–12, Charlotte W. Rhodes Sep 2015

Living In A Material World: Defining “Materiality” In The Municipal Bond Market And Rule 15c2–12, Charlotte W. Rhodes

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Afterword To The Aig Bailout, William K. Sjostrom Jr. Mar 2015

Afterword To The Aig Bailout, William K. Sjostrom Jr.

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Avoiding The Nuclear Option: Balancing Borrower And Lender Rights Under The Truth In Lending Act’S Right Of Rescission , Jonathan L. Caulder Jun 2014

Avoiding The Nuclear Option: Balancing Borrower And Lender Rights Under The Truth In Lending Act’S Right Of Rescission , Jonathan L. Caulder

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Friend This: Why Those Damaged During The Facebook Ipo Will Recover (Almost) Nothing From Nasdaq, Thomas L. Short Mar 2014

Friend This: Why Those Damaged During The Facebook Ipo Will Recover (Almost) Nothing From Nasdaq, Thomas L. Short

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Review: Is Hedge Fund Registration Necessary? , J. W. Verret Jan 2013

Review: Is Hedge Fund Registration Necessary? , J. W. Verret

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Risk-Based Student Loans , Michael Simkovic Jan 2013

Risk-Based Student Loans , Michael Simkovic

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Is Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Necessary To Accomplish The Goals Of The Dodd–Frank Act’S Title Iv?, Luther R. Ashworth Ii Jan 2013

Is Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Necessary To Accomplish The Goals Of The Dodd–Frank Act’S Title Iv?, Luther R. Ashworth Ii

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Why Register Hedge Fund Advisers—A Comment, Lyman P.Q. Johnson Jan 2013

Why Register Hedge Fund Advisers—A Comment, Lyman P.Q. Johnson

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Card Act On Campus, Jim Hawkins Jun 2012

The Card Act On Campus, Jim Hawkins

Washington and Lee Law Review

In February 2010, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act intervened in student credit card markets in a dramatic way, attempting to prevent student over-indebtedness, to end aggressive marketing to college students, and to reveal and change avaricious agreements between credit card issuers and colleges. Yet, two years after it became effective, we still have little measurement of whether the Act has accomplished these goals. This Article offers the first empirical assessment of the rationales for the CARD Act and the Act’s effects. Over the two years since the CARD Act went into effect, I conducted surveys of …


Credit On Wheels: The Law And Business Of Auto-Title Lending, Jim Hawkins Mar 2012

Credit On Wheels: The Law And Business Of Auto-Title Lending, Jim Hawkins

Washington and Lee Law Review

Despite the fact that they are used by millions of Americans, auto-title loans have received little attention in the legal literature about consumer credit. Friends and foes of title lending make confident statements about their net welfare effects, but we still lack empirical data on many of the central policy questions that title lending raises. This Article offers new evidence about the title lending transaction, paying special attention to the risks borrowers face when they use their vehicles as collateral for the loan. I gathered this evidence by obtaining new reports from state regulators about the title lending industry, examining …


Mortgaging Human Capital: Federally Funded Subprime Higher Education, Jean Braucher Mar 2012

Mortgaging Human Capital: Federally Funded Subprime Higher Education, Jean Braucher

Washington and Lee Law Review

The for-profit higher education sector, primarily funded by federal student aid dollars, produces both the highest debts and defaults and lowest completion rates for its students. In response, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has promulgated the Gainful Employment Rule to require for-profit colleges and universities to meet either repayment or debt-to-income benchmarks to remain eligible to receive federal Higher Education Act funding. This Article describes the business model of the career colleges and their rapid growth over the last decade, the history of proprietary school regulation, the limited remedies for overindebtedness of former students, and the tests imposed by …


Payday Lending, Bankruptcy, And Insolvency, Richard Hynes Mar 2012

Payday Lending, Bankruptcy, And Insolvency, Richard Hynes

Washington and Lee Law Review

Economic theory suggests that payday lending can either increase or decrease consumer welfare. Consumers can use payday loans to cushion the effects of financial shocks, but payday loans may also increase the chance that consumers will succumb to temptation or cognitive errors and seek instant gratification. Both supporters and critics of payday lending have alleged that the welfare effects of the industry can be substantial and that the legalization of payday lending can even have measurable effects on proxies for financial distress, such as bankruptcy, foreclosure, and property crime. Critics further allege that payday lenders target minority and military communities, …


Loan Sharks, Interest-Rate Caps, And Deregulation, Robert Mayer Mar 2012

Loan Sharks, Interest-Rate Caps, And Deregulation, Robert Mayer

Washington and Lee Law Review

The specter of the loan shark is often conjured by advocates of price deregulation in the market for payday loans. If binding price caps are imposed, the argument goes, loan sharks will be spawned. This is the loan-shark thesis. This Article tests that thesis against the historical record of payday lending in the United States since the origins of the quick-cash business around the Civil War. Two different types of creditors have been derided as “loan sharks” since the epithet was first coined. One used threats of violence to collect its debts but the other did not. The former has …


Credit And Human Welfare: Lessons From Microcredit In Developing Nations, Alan M. White Mar 2012

Credit And Human Welfare: Lessons From Microcredit In Developing Nations, Alan M. White

Washington and Lee Law Review

Deregulation of usury laws, in the United States and in developing nations, has permitted various forms of small loans to be made to the poor and the working class, sometimes at very high prices. In the case of credit, more is not always better. A human development approach to evaluating the welfare impacts of credit products for the poor asks these questions: does a credit product or program increase income or consumption, achieve savings through investment in capital goods, or smooth consumption and avert crises, all at a reasonable cost? Or does the credit on balance redistribute income away from …


Foreword For Regulation In The Fringe Economy Symposium, John P. Caskey Mar 2012

Foreword For Regulation In The Fringe Economy Symposium, John P. Caskey

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Regulating Online Peer-To-Peer Lending In The Aftermath Of Dodd–Frank: In Search Of An Evolving Regulatory Regime For An Evolving Industry, Eric C. Chaffee, Geoffrey C. Rapp Mar 2012

Regulating Online Peer-To-Peer Lending In The Aftermath Of Dodd–Frank: In Search Of An Evolving Regulatory Regime For An Evolving Industry, Eric C. Chaffee, Geoffrey C. Rapp

Washington and Lee Law Review

The 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act called for a government study of the regulatory options for on-line Peer-to-Peer lending. On-line P2P sites, most notably for-profit sites Prosper.com and LendingClub.com, offer individual “investors” the chance to lend funds to individual “borrowers.” The sites promise lower interest rates for borrowers and high rates of return for investors. In addition to the media attention such sites have generated, they also raise significant regulatory concerns on both the state and federal level. The Government Accountability Office report produced in response to the Dodd–Frank Act failed to make a strong recommendation …


The Alliance Between Payday Lenders And Tribes: Are Both Tribal Sovereignty And Consumer Protection At Risk?, Nathalie Martin, Joshua Schwartz Mar 2012

The Alliance Between Payday Lenders And Tribes: Are Both Tribal Sovereignty And Consumer Protection At Risk?, Nathalie Martin, Joshua Schwartz

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Damage Of Debt, Katherine Porter Mar 2012

The Damage Of Debt, Katherine Porter

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


After The Great Recession: Regulating Financial Services For Low- And Middle-Income Communities, Ronald J. Mann Mar 2012

After The Great Recession: Regulating Financial Services For Low- And Middle-Income Communities, Ronald J. Mann

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Regulation Of Payday Loans: Misguided?, Paige Marta Skiba Mar 2012

Regulation Of Payday Loans: Misguided?, Paige Marta Skiba

Washington and Lee Law Review

Since payday lenders came on the scene in 1990s, regulation of their “predatory” practices has been swift and often severe. Fourteen states now ban payday loans outright. From an economist’s perspective, high-interest, short-term, small loans need not be a bad thing. Payday credit can help borrowers “smooth” consumption, unequivocally improving welfare as consumers borrow from future good times to help cover current shortfalls. These benefits of credit can accrue even at typical payday loan interest rates of 300%–600% APR. The question of whether payday credit actually assists borrowers in this way is an empirical one. In this Article, I review …


“Warning: Predatory Lender”—A Proposal For Candid Predatory Small Loan Ordinances, Christopher L. Peterson Mar 2012

“Warning: Predatory Lender”—A Proposal For Candid Predatory Small Loan Ordinances, Christopher L. Peterson

Washington and Lee Law Review

Over a hundred different local governments around the country have adopted ordinances restricting small, high-cost loans. This trend reflects the solid majority of the American public that opposes the legality of triple-digit interest rate loans and the long historical tradition of treating payday and car-title lending as a serious civil offense or even a crime. Nevertheless, perhaps owing to limits on municipal power, local payday lending law has generated relatively little scholarship or commentary. This paper describes the existing local law governing small, high-cost consumer loans and proposes a more emphatic ordinance that better reflects the policy judgment of many …