Securities Law Commons^™

Total Return Meltdown: The Case For Treating Total Return Swaps As Disguised Secured Transactions, Colin P. Marks

Pepperdine Law Review

Archegos Capital Management, at its height, had $35 billion in assets. But in the spring of 2021, in part through its use of total return swaps, Archegos sparked a $30 billion dollar sell-off that left many of the world’s largest banks footing the bill. Mitsubishi UFJ Group estimated a loss of $300 million; UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, lost $861 million; Morgan Stanley lost $911 million; Japan’s Nomura lost $2.85 billion; but the biggest hit came to Credit Suisse Group AG which lost $5.5 billion. Archegos, itself lost $20 billion over two days. The unique characteristics of total return swaps and …

A False Sense Of Security: How Congress And The Sec Are Dropping The Ball On Cryptocurrency, Tessa E. Shurr

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Today, companies use blockchain technology and digital assets for a variety of purposes. This Comment analyzes the digital token. If the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) views a digital token as a security, then the issuer of the digital token must comply with the registration and extensive disclosure requirements of federal securities laws.

To determine whether a digital asset is a security, the SEC relies on the test that the Supreme Court established in SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. Rather than enforcing a statute or agency rule, the SEC enforces securities laws by applying the Howey test on a fact-intensive …

What's Wrong With Jumpstart(Ing) Our Business Startups (Jobs) Act?, Lynnise E. Pantin

Faculty Scholarship

Lack of access to financial capital is a barrier for many entrepreneurs who seek to grow their business venture. In an effort to democratize the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Congress and the Obama Administration enacted the JOBS Act, which implements and regulates crowdfunding. The democratic nature of the online crowdfunding platforms is a seemingly attractive solution to structural and institutionalized barriers to fundraising within the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Although the JOBS Act is a laudable step, the legislation does not in practice help entrepreneurs and herein lies one of its greatest shortcomings. The JOBS Act is unduly burdensome and is yet another barrier …

The Vanishing Supervisor, James A. Fanto

James A. Fanto

This Article begins with two stories that are emblematic of related trends in broker-dealers: the importance of compliance officers and the significance of technology for the oversight of brokers and their activities. The stories also point to the lessening role of the supervisor who is “on the ground” in the branches of these firms. The diminished position of the mid-level supervisor is surprising, even shocking, in the federal regulation of broker-dealers. The history of this regulation reveals that Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and self-regulatory organizations (“SROs”) like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) sought to prevent broker …

Confronting The Peppercorn Settlement In Merger Litigation: An Empirical Analysis And A Proposal For Reform, Jill E. Fisch, Sean J. Griffith, Steven M. Davidoff

All Faculty Scholarship

Shareholder litigation challenging corporate mergers is ubiquitous, with the likelihood of a shareholder suit exceeding 90%. The value of this litigation, however, is questionable. The vast majority of merger cases settle for nothing more than supplemental disclosures in the merger proxy statement. The attorneys that bring these lawsuits are compensated for their efforts with a court-awarded fee. This leads critics to charge that merger litigation benefits only the lawyers who bring the claims, not the shareholders they represent. In response, defenders of merger litigation argue that the lawsuits serve a useful oversight function and that the improved disclosures that result …

Confronting The Peppercorn Settlement In Merger Litigation: An Empirical Analysis And A Proposal For Reform, Jill E. Fisch, Sean J. Griffith, Steven M. Davidoff

Steven Davidoff Solomon

Shareholder litigation challenging corporate mergers is ubiquitous, with the likelihood of a shareholder suit exceeding 90%. The value of this litigation, however, is questionable. The vast majority of merger cases settle for nothing more than supplemental disclosures in the merger proxy statement. The attorneys that bring these lawsuits are compensated for their efforts with a court-awarded fee. This leads critics to charge that merger litigation benefits only the lawyers who bring the claims, not the shareholders they represent. In response, defenders of merger litigation argue that the lawsuits serve a useful oversight function and that the improved disclosures that result …

Disclosure Norms, Eric L. Talley

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this Article is to interrogate the relationship between judicial error and extralegal norms more formally, focusing particularly on typical corporate disclosure contexts. In so doing, I shall argue that this relationship is far less clear-cut than much of the literature suggests. Using a formal, game-theoretic model of information disclosure, I demonstrate that in the presence of judicial error, a society that benefits from extralegal norms of honest disclosure might ironically favor more expansive legal regulation than would a similarly situated society in which norms are weak or nonexistent. Thus, in contrast to the common argument that norms …

Measuring Securities Market Efficiency In The Regulatory Setting, Randall Thomas, James F. Cotter

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In the "Aircraft Carrier," the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed changes in federal securities disclosure requirements in an attempt to enhance and facilitate the process of issuing new securities. Under the proposed regulatory regime, the registration process would be simplified so that many larger, more experienced issuers would be able to use a new, shorter registration statement called Form B (as opposed to the more extensive Form A) whenever they sell securities to the public. To qualify to use Form B, a company with at least twelve months reporting history under the Exchange Act must either have a public …

Look Who's Talking: Defining The Scope Of The Misappropriation Theory After United States V. O'Hagan, Janet E. Kerr, Tor S. Sweeney

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bespeaks Caution Doctrine: Revisiting The Application Of Federal Securities Law To Opinions And Estimates, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

Disclosure of estimates and opinions, which are often referred to as ‘soft information,‘ has presented a number of difficult issues to courts, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and companies issuing offering materials or required to file periodic reports with the SEC. Although this type of information often consists of projections, historical financial statements also include this type of information to varying degrees. For example, a bank's statement of financial position requires specification of loan loss reserves and is therefore dependent on an assessment of future events (the timing and extent of repayment). Similarly, determination of the timing of a …

Racing Syndicates As Securities, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

It is not difficult to understand why horses like Devil's Bag, Chief's Crown and Spend A Buck are syndicated during their racing careers. The owners of such horses find themselves with an asset worth millions of dollars, but the asset has the potential to decrease significantly in value if the racing fortunes of the horse change. That creates pressure for owners to disinvest, at least partially, and spread the risk of loss. Investors, on the other hand, are often just as anxious to invest. Not only is there the chance of earnings and appreciation if the horse continues to win, …

Implied Contribution Under The Federal Securities Laws: A Reassessment, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

No abstract provided.

Choice Of Federal Or State Law For Attorneys' Professional Responsibility In Securities Matters, Ted J. Fiflis

Publications

Professional standards of duty are implicated in the federal securities laws in two types of cases: those instituted by the SEC to impose sanctions for lack of character or unethical conduct and those brought by the SEC or private parties for violations of substantive provisions of the securities laws. The question faced by Professor Fiflis is whether state or federal standards should define the duties imposed under these laws. He argues that the proper method of resolving this question is to apply an interest analysis. Analyzing the various state and federal interests leads Professor Fiflis to the conclusion that federal …

Registration And Exemption From Registration Of Employee Compensation Plans Under The Federal Securities Laws, Dean L. Overman

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article is a basic summary of the rather complex federal securities laws concerning the registration of employee compensation plans. It centers around certain provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940. The article initially discusses the necessity of registering the following four types of employee compensation plans: (1) pension, profit-sharing, stock bonus and similar plans; (2) employee stock purchase plans; (3) stock option plans; and (4) phantom stock plans. It then considers certain exemptions for these plans and the means available to employees to effect a …

Texas Gulf Sulphur: Its Holdings And Implications, William N. Ozier

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this note is to analyze the holding in the Texas Gulf Sulphur case as it relates to prior law and to consider some of the problems raised by the decision. Some suggestions will also be made for possible resolution of the most disturbing questions raised by the decision.