Securities Law Commons^™

Where Were The Counselors - Reflections On Advice Not Given And The Role Of Attorneys In The Accounting Crisis, William O. Fisher

Law Faculty Publications

Today's reports of corporate villainy invite these questions: Restricting ourselves to what the profession knew in the last days of the late 1990s soaring stock market, what advice might attorneys have given-about the temptations of deceptive accounting and the defenses to erect against it-to young executives who were taking their companies public then? And, if attorneys did not always give that counsel in fulsome form, why was that so? What forces worked on lawyers to deter that advice? What does all this suggest for counseling today? To help us answer these questions, we begin with two scenes. We return to …

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 …

Should Congress Repeal Securities Class Action Reform?, Adam C. Pritchard

Other Publications

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 was designed to curtail class action lawsuits by the plaintiffs’ bar. In particular, the high-technology industry, accountants, and investment bankers thought that they had been unjustly victimized by class action lawsuits based on little more than declines in a company’s stock price. Prior to 1995, the plaintiffs’ bar had free rein to use the discovery process to troll for evidence to support its claims. Moreover, the high costs of litigation were a powerful weapon with which to coerce companies to settle claims. The plaintiffs’ bar and its allies in Congress have called …

Beyond The Business Judgment Rule: Protecting Bidder Firm Shareholders From Value-Reducing Acquisitions, Ryan Houseal

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

During the takeover transactions of the 1980s, bidder firms paid target firm shareholders average premiums of approximately 50% for their shares. Did the sizable premiums paid to target firm shareholders during the 1980s reflect post-takeover improvement in the target's performance? Or were the premiums a result of the mismanagement of the bidder firms' assets?

The answer will help determine whether additional legal mechanisms should be established to protect bidder firm shareholders from the threat of management's consummation of value reducing acquisitions. Accordingly, this Note examines various studies which attempt to identify the source of the premiums paid to target firm …