Securities Law Commons^™

Arbitration Of Investors' Claims Against Issuers: An Idea Whose Time Has Come, Barbara Black

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court held that arbitration provisions contained in brokerage customers’ agreements were enforceable with respect to federal securities claims, proposals have been floated to include in an issuer’s governance documents a provision that would require arbitration of investors’ claims against the issuer. To date, however, publicly traded domestic issuers and their counsel have not seriously pursued these proposals, probably because of several legal obstacles to implementation. In addition to these legal obstacles, publicly traded issuers may not have perceived significant advantages to arbitration. Recent legal developments, however, make inclusion of an arbitration provision in a publicly …

Economic Suicide: The Collision Of Ethics And Risk In Securities Laws, Barbara Black, Jill Gross

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The first part of this article looks at whether there are any legal principles derived from regulation or the case law to support an "economic suicide" claim. The second part of the article reviews arbitrators' awards to determine whether arbitrators do, in fact, decide favorably on economic suicide claims. The article also looks at some arbitrators' awards that appear to recognize an economic suicide claim to identify any factors that may lead arbitrators to award damages to the claimant. Finally, in the third part, we address whether policy considerations support an extension of recognized brokers' duties to include a duty …

Establishing A Securities Arbitration Clinic: The Experience At Pace, Barbara Black

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In the fall of1997 Pace University School of Law established one of the first law school clinics to provide student assistance to small investors who have disputes with their broker-dealers. What follows is a brief account of the clinic's educational objectives, an analysis of the initial organizational issues, and a report on the clinic's operation during its first two years. I am writing this in the hope that it will provide guidance and assistance to other law schools that contemplate establishing a securities arbitration clinic.

This is a nuts-and-bolts article written from the perspective of an experienced law professor who …

Strange Case Of Fraud On The Market: A Label In Search Of A Theory, Barbara Black

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Part I of this Article will briefly discuss fraud on the market as a label attached to different factual situations, analyzing Blackie v. Barrack and Shores v. Sklar as two paradigms of the label's application. Part II will discuss the Supreme Court's recent decision in Basic. It concludes that the Court did not analyze definitively fraud on the market, thus leaving open the possibility that a pure causation approach is an appropriate explanation of fraud on the market. The treatment and application of fraud on the market in the lower courts is next analyzed in three groups: those applying Blackie, …