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Articles 1 - 30 of 41
Full-Text Articles in Law
A Regulatory Budget For The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, J.W. Verret
A Regulatory Budget For The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, J.W. Verret
Georgia State University Law Review
The Public Company Accounting Standards Board (PCAOB) was created by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002 in response to the Enron and WorldCom auditing scandals. The PCAOB regulates the $20 billion annual auditing industry, which itself provides assurance for the financial integrity of $27 trillion in outstanding global publicly traded equity. The PCAOB is uniquely a quasi-private entity overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which approves its budget and must approve any changes in its rules. The PCAOB has undertaken initiatives to attenuate the cost–benefit calculus of its rules, most notably in a change from Auditing Standard 2 …
Adverse Domination, Statutes Of Limitations And The In Pari Delicto Defense - Application In Cases Involving Claims Of Accounting Malpractice And Corporate Fraud, Laurence A. Steckman Esq., Adam J. Rader Esq.
Adverse Domination, Statutes Of Limitations And The In Pari Delicto Defense - Application In Cases Involving Claims Of Accounting Malpractice And Corporate Fraud, Laurence A. Steckman Esq., Adam J. Rader Esq.
Touro Law Review
No abstract provided.
Intermediaries Revisited: Is Efficient Certification Consistent With Profit Maximization?, Jonathan M. Barnett
Intermediaries Revisited: Is Efficient Certification Consistent With Profit Maximization?, Jonathan M. Barnett
Jonathan M Barnett
Private certification mechanisms are a key component of the regulatory infrastructure in the financial sector and other commercial settings. It is generally assumed that certification intermediaries have profit-based incentives to deliver accurate information to the certified market. But this view does not account for repeated failures in certification markets. Those failures can be explained by an inherent defect in the incentive structure of certification intermediaries: entry barriers both support and undermine the consistent supply of accurate information to the certified market. Certification markets tend to converge on a handful of providers protected by switching costs, product opacity and reputational noise. …
The Timing And Source Of Regulation, Frank Partnoy
The Timing And Source Of Regulation, Frank Partnoy
Seattle University Law Review
The distinction between specific concrete rules and general abstract principles has engaged legal theorists for decades. This rules–principles distinction has also become increasingly important in corporate and securities law, as well as financial market regulation. This Article adds two important variables to the rules–principles debate: timing and source. Although these two variables are relevant to legal theory generally, the specific goal here is not to address and engage the rules versus principles literature directly. Rather, the goal here is to ask whether the debate about financial market regulation might benefit from a more transparent analysis of temporal and legal source …
Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman
Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman
Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.
Effective corporate governance is critical to the productive operation of the global economy and preservation of our way of life. Excellent governance execution is also required to achieve economic growth and robust job creation in any country. In the United States, the premier director membership organization is the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Now over 36 years old, NACD plays a major role in fostering excellence in corporate governance in the United States and beyond. Over the past thirty-six years NACD has grown from a mere realization of the importance of corporate governance to become the only national membership …
Threats Escalate: Corporate Information Technology Governance Under Fire, Lawrence J. Trautman
Threats Escalate: Corporate Information Technology Governance Under Fire, Lawrence J. Trautman
Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.
In a previous publication The Board’s Responsibility for Information Technology Governance, (with Kara Altenbaumer-Price) we examined: The IT Governance Institute’s Executive Summary and Framework for Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology 4.1 (COBIT®); reviewed the Weill and Ross Corporate and Key Asset Governance Framework; and observed “that in a survey of audit executives and board members, 58 percent believed that their corporate employees had little to no understanding of how to assess risk.” We further described the new SEC rules on risk management; Congressional action on cyber security; legal basis for director’s duties and responsibilities relative to IT governance; …
Punctuated Equilibrium: A Model For Administrative Evolution, Mark Niles
Punctuated Equilibrium: A Model For Administrative Evolution, Mark Niles
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
No abstract provided.
Chinese Reverse Mergers, Accounting Regimes, And The Rule Of Law In China, Benjamin A. Templin
Chinese Reverse Mergers, Accounting Regimes, And The Rule Of Law In China, Benjamin A. Templin
Benjamin A. Templin
In 2010, federal regulators and politicians became increasingly concerned over the accounting practices of Chinese companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges. In particular, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) targeted companies that went public through a process called the reverse merger. The instances of fraud became so widespread, regulators and commentators coined the term Chinese Reverse Merger (“CRM”) in order to describe a sector where investors assume the risk of accounting irregularities. Although CRMs must comply with international accounting standards, a weak rule of law in China has resulted in poor implementation and enforcement of its accounting regime. U.S. …
Heedless Globalism: The Sec's Roadmap To Accounting Convergence, William W. Bratton
Heedless Globalism: The Sec's Roadmap To Accounting Convergence, William W. Bratton
All Faculty Scholarship
The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a "Roadmap" that describes a process leading to mandatory use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by domestic issuers by 2014. The SEC justifies this initiative on the grounds that global standardization yields cost savings and an ultimate gain in comparability, facilitating the search for global opportunities by u.s. investors and making u.s. capital markets more attractive to foreign issuers. This Article shows that the offered justification is inadequate. The SEC frames the matter as a choice between two institutional frameworks for standard setting, holding out high quality sets of standards, asking which …
An Examination Of The Government Accounting Standards Board, Christopher D. Jones
An Examination Of The Government Accounting Standards Board, Christopher D. Jones
CMC Senior Theses
This thesis examines the Government Accounting Standards Board by considering its history, current structure, and treatment of a current accounting standards debate. It then uses this examination to make recommendations as to reforms of the GASB and government accounting.
Gatekeeper Incentive Compensation, Sharon Hannes
Gatekeeper Incentive Compensation, Sharon Hannes
Faculty Working Papers
A massive wave of corporate fraud at the beginning of the twenty first century exposed the failure of corporate gatekeepers. The Sarbanes-Oxley legislation accordingly targeted gatekeepers, primarily auditors, by imposing strict regulation and enhanced independence guidelines. This legislative remedy is of disputable benefit while its costs have been huge. This paper maintains that a certain type of auditor incentive compensation could work better than regulation. Under such an alternative scheme, auditors would defer a portion of the payment they receive from the client firm, which would be used to purchase shares in the client after their tenure as auditor has …
The Screening Effect Of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Stephen Choi, Karen K. Nelson, Adam C. Pritchard
The Screening Effect Of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Stephen Choi, Karen K. Nelson, Adam C. Pritchard
Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009
Prior research shows that the PSLRA increased the significance of merit-related factors, such as the presence of an accounting restatement or insider selling, in determining the incidence and outcomes of securities fraud class actions. (Johnson, Nelson, and Pritchard, 2007). This result, however, is consistent with two possible hypotheses. First, the PSLRA may have reduced solely the incidence of non-meritorious litigation. Second, the PSLRA may have changed the definition of merit, effectively precluding claims that would have survived and produced a settlement pre-PSLRA. This paper tests these alternative hypotheses. We find that pre-PSLRA claims that settled for nuisance value would be …
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.
Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson
Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson
ExpressO
Predatory lending is a real, pervasive, and destructive problem as demonstrated by record settlements, jury awards, media exposes, and a large body of empirical scholarship. Currently the national debate over predatory mortgage lending is shifting to the controversial question of who should bear liability for predatory lending practices. In today’s subprime mortgage market, originators and brokers quickly assign home loans through a complex and opaque series of transactions involving as many as a dozen different strategically organized companies. Loans are typically transferred into large pools, and then income from those loans is “structured” to appeal to different types of investors. …
The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei
The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei
ExpressO
Abstract
In the past, academics and regulators debated two competing approaches to international securities regulation, namely “harmonization” and “regulatory competition.” More recently, a third approach to securities regulation has emerged – the “equivalence” approach. Under this model, a host country exempts foreign firms from certain host country rules when the firms’ home country rules are sufficiently similar, or “equivalent.” Many regulators have come to embrace equivalence, which is rapidly becoming a key principle in international finance.
This paper studies the concept of equivalence. It begins by defining “equivalence,” highlighting that different regulators manipulate the term to give it contrasting meanings. …
Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp
Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp
ExpressO
This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.
Enron And The Special Purpose Entity. Use Or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus, Neal F. Newman
Enron And The Special Purpose Entity. Use Or Abuse? The Real Problem - The Real Focus, Neal F. Newman
ExpressO
In December of 2001, Enron Corporation filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; one of the largest corporate bankruptcy filings at that time. When the investigations commenced and the tangled Enron web was unraveled, it was discovered that Enron had perpetrated a very sophisticated form of accounting fraud through its repeated use of what are referred to as Special Purpose Entities (“SPEs”). In their most basic forms, SPEs are business entities formed for the purpose of conducting a well specified activity such as construction of a gas pipeline, or collection of a specific group of accounts …
Measuring And Representing The Knowledge Economy: Accounting For Economic Reality Under The Intangibles Paradigm, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Measuring And Representing The Knowledge Economy: Accounting For Economic Reality Under The Intangibles Paradigm, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
ExpressO
Enron has become a symbol: a symbol of excess, an illustration of how a company can base its business on fraudulent, deceptive or even largely non-existent business transactions. The collapse of Enron had a significant impact on the adoption of legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was intended to prevent the types of fraudulent behavior that occurred at Enron. However, Sarbanes-Oxley and other responses to the business practices of many companies during the late 1990s do not fully address some of the underlying factors that permitted and in fact encouraged the Enrons of the world to represent their companies …
Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor
Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
What Makes Asset Securitization "Inefficient"?, Kenji Yamazaki
What Makes Asset Securitization "Inefficient"?, Kenji Yamazaki
ExpressO
Despite the damage caused by the recent Enron scandal , the asset securitization market has been vibrant and has become a popular financing alternative . A number of academics emphasize its merits and suggest that it is a more favorable way of financing, and Congress’s proposal to make sales of asset in securitization immune from characterization as secured transactions under the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2001 (the “Reform Act”) almost materialized when the Enron scandal hit the scene. Conversely, there have been accusations that securitization is not a legitimate way of financing because, for example, it fosters fraudulent transactions.
Why …
A Securities Regulator Looks At Onvergence, Donald T. Nicolaisen
A Securities Regulator Looks At Onvergence, Donald T. Nicolaisen
Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business
For many years there has been a dedicated group of practitioners, standard setters, business leaders and others from around the world who have worked to establish a single set of globally accepted accounting standards for the benefit of the capital markets. These people clearly had their hearts in the right place but, absent a binding mandate to apply the standards, it seemed largely a labor of love. Now I expect those pioneering initiatives and the many years of effort to pay off because in 2005 a large number of companies are joining what up to now has been a limited …
Expensing Isn't The Only Option: Alternatives To The Fasb's Stock Option Expensing Proposal, Benjamin A. Templin
Expensing Isn't The Only Option: Alternatives To The Fasb's Stock Option Expensing Proposal, Benjamin A. Templin
ExpressO
This paper reviews the arguments for and against the Financial Accounting Standard Board's (FASB) proposal to require that corporations expense options. It identifies two major goals of the proposed rule -- 1) clarity in financial statements and 2) a reduction of corporate fraud by removing the incentive of options. To address these two goals, I adopt a framework of Information Reforms v. Rules of the Game Reforms. The article starts with a history of FASB Statement No. 123 Accounting for Stock-based Compensation and also analyzes the Congressional legislation that attempts to block the measure, the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act. …
A Model Financial Statement Insurance Act, Lawrence A. Cunningham
A Model Financial Statement Insurance Act, Lawrence A. Cunningham
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
Revisiting The Role Of The Future In Accounting Reform, Lawrence A. Cunningham
Revisiting The Role Of The Future In Accounting Reform, Lawrence A. Cunningham
ExpressO
Overlooked in accounting-reform debate emanating from recent financial reporting scandals is the role of forward-looking disclosure inaugurated in the late 1970s and expanded throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Debate centered on whether accounting concepts developed during this period were too rule-bound. An SEC study largely resolved this debate by characterizing US GAAP as a mix of rules and principles embedded in an objectives-based accounting system. The SEC expressed a slight preference for principles over rules in future accounting standard-setting. Some see this resolution as transformative. This Article considers how it may disguise a false dichotomy likely providing false catharsis. Underappreciated …
Choosing Gatekeepers: The Financial Statement Insurance Alternative To Auditor Liabilty, Lawrence A. Cunningham
Choosing Gatekeepers: The Financial Statement Insurance Alternative To Auditor Liabilty, Lawrence A. Cunningham
ExpressO
Positioned in a lively current debate concerning how to design auditor incentives to optimize financial statement auditing, this Article presents the more ambitious financial statement insurance alternative. This breaks from the existing securities regulation framework to draw directly on insurance markets and law. Based on upon an evaluation of major structural and policy-related features of the concept, the assessment prescribes a framework to permit companies, on an experimental-basis and with investor approval, to use financial statement insurance as an optional alternative to the existing model of financial statement auditing backed by auditor liability.
The financial statement insurance concept, pioneered by …
What Counts As Fraud? An Empirical Study Of Motions To Dismiss Under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Adam C. Pritchard
What Counts As Fraud? An Empirical Study Of Motions To Dismiss Under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Adam C. Pritchard
ExpressO
No abstract provided.
Comparisons Among Firms: (When) Do They Justify Mandatory Disclosure?, Sharon Hannes
Comparisons Among Firms: (When) Do They Justify Mandatory Disclosure?, Sharon Hannes
ExpressO
Comparisons among firms play a major role in securities analysis. This essay asks if this fact justifies the mandatory nature of securities regulation. Once a firm approaches the public securities markets, federal securities regulations compel it to disclose financial information to the public. A seminal theory argues that firms would not otherwise commit to maintain optimal disclosure levels, since a disclosing firm bears all disclosure costs but does not gain all disclosure benefits.
This paper examines the robustness of this argument in relation to disclosure benefits which arise from comparisons among firms. Financial data of peer firms allows shareholders to …
Rules, Principles, And The Accounting Crisis In The United States, William W. Bratton
Rules, Principles, And The Accounting Crisis In The United States, William W. Bratton
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Securities Exchange Commission move too quickly when they prod the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the standard setter for US GAAP, to move immediately to a principles-based system. Priorities respecting reform of corporate reporting in the US need to be ordered more carefully. Incentive problems impairing audit performance should be solved first through institutional reform insulating the audit from the negative impact of rent-seeking and solving adverse selection problems otherwise affecting audit practice. So long as auditor independence and management incentives respecting accounting treatments remain suspect, the US reporting system holds out no actor plausibly positioned …
Professionalism Consequences Of Law Firm Investments In Clients: An Empirical Assessment, Royce De R. Barondes
Professionalism Consequences Of Law Firm Investments In Clients: An Empirical Assessment, Royce De R. Barondes
Faculty Publications
This article examines two principal hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: Law firm investments in clients diminish the extent to which those law firms require issuers to disclose adverse information in IPO prospectuses. Hypothesis 2: Those law firms that are willing to invest in their clients are generally less aggressive in requiring their clients, in their IPOs, to disclose adverse information in their IPO prospectuses.
11th Biennial Midwest/Midsouth Securities Law Conference, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law
11th Biennial Midwest/Midsouth Securities Law Conference, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law
Continuing Legal Education Materials
Materials from the UK/CLE 11th Biennial Midwest/Midsouth Securities Law Conference held in February 2002.