Digital Commons Network^™

Naked Self-Interest? Why The Legal Profession Resists Gatekeeping, Sung Hui Kim

Florida Law Review

This Article asks and answers the following question: why does the legal profession resist gatekeeping? Or, put another way, why do lawyers resist duties that require them to act to avert harm to their corporate client, its own shareholders, and-possibly-the capital markets? While acknowledging that the economic self-interest of the profession is an undeniable force fueling the bar’s opposition to gatekeeping, this Article argues that the characterization of naked rent-seeking behavior is too simplistic. It argues that economic self-interest exerts a more subtle influence than the conventional story would suggest. In addition, the legal profession’s resistance to gatekeeping is grounded …

China Under The New Leadership, Hsin-Chi Kuan

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

2013 Law School Application Pamphlet, University Of Michigan Law School

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

Pamphlet with information about the University of Michigan Law School and how to apply for admission.

Self-Regulation For The Mortgage Industry, M. Todd Henderson

Articles

No abstract provided.

Advance Health Care Directives: Problems And Solutions For The Elder Law And Estate Planning Practitioner, Brooke M. Benzio

St. Thomas Law Review

"Remember that what you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to some one else; but what you are, will be yours forever. "' -Henry Van Dyke.

Since the modem movement for patient autonomy began gathering steam in the 1900s, individual concerns about the purpose, nature, and quality of medical care have become a larger component of the practice of medicine. However, state and federal law has been relatively slow to respond, and establishment of the relevant legal framework is relatively recent. New Jersey courts led the charge with their decision in …

Texas Annual Survey: Securities Regulation, George Lee Flint Jr

Faculty Articles

The Fifth Circuit’s determination of a passive investor’s equity interest in a limited liability company as “securities” brings this class of investors under the protection of the Texas Securities Act (“TSA”). The TSA recognizes vicarious liability theories of aiding and abetting liability and control person liability, which hold secondary parties accountable for their actions. During the Survey period, several cases found secondary parties with positions of control or who met the elements of common law fraud culpable. In Fernea v. Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, Inc., the court found that a business could be liable for an employee’s actions …

Deferred Prosecution And Non-Prosecution Agreements And The Erosion Of Corporate Criminal Liability, David M. Uhlmann

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Mediation And Insurance In Bet The Company Litigation, Jed Melnick

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

When most of us graduate from law school, we are not able to read or understand our own car insurance policy, and yet the resolution of most commercial litigation would not happen without the involvement of insurance. The reality is that, in the context of class actions and "bet the company" litigation, insurance is usually the sole source of funds used to resolve the dispute. What follows is the transcript from a panel discussion that took place on February 9, 2012 at Cardozo Law School entitled, "The Role of Mediation and Insurance in Bet the Company Litigation." The idea behind …

White Collar Overcriminalization: Deterrence, Plea Bargaining, And The Loss Of Innocence, Lucian E. Dervan

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Securities Regulation, George Lee Flint Jr.

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fiddling On The Roof: Recent Developments In Cybersecurity, Melanie J. Teplinsky

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

American Terrorists As Perpetrators Of Communitarian Assaults, Amitai Etzioni

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unregulated Corporate Internal Investigations: Achieving Fairness For Corporate Constituents, Bruce A. Green, Ellen S. Progdor

Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on the relationship between corporations and their employee constituents in the context of corporate internal investigations, an unregulated multi-million dollar business. The classic approach provided in the 1981 Supreme Court opinion, Upjohn v. United States, is contrasted with the reality of modern-day internal investigations that may exploit individuals to achieve a corporate benefit with the government. Attorney-client privilege becomes an issue as corporate constituents perceive that corporate counsel is representing their interests, when in fact these internal investigators are obtaining information for the corporation to barter with the government. Legal precedent and ethics rules provide little relief …

A Constitutional Right To Lie In Campaigns And Elections?, Richard L. Hasen

Montana Law Review

After Alvarez, the state may no longer have the power to ban or punish malicious false campaign speech, whether made by candidates or others. The result of this conclusion is that we are likely to see more false campaign speech in elections, including some brazen lies. With candidates’ pants increasingly on fire, and with the wooden noses of campaign consultants growing ever longer, the question is whether counterspeech—from opposing candidates, the media, and perhaps the government—will be enough to give voters the tools they need to make intelligent choices. I take solace in Jack Shafer’s depressing observation that most voters …

Regulatory Effectiveness & Offshore Financial Centers, Andrew P. Morriss, Clifford C. Henson

Faculty Scholarship

Onshore jurisdictions, such as the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany, are critical of offshore financial centers (OFCs), such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the Channel Islands. Arguments against OFCs include claims that their regulatory oversight is lax, allowing fraud and criminal activity. In this article, we present cross-jurisdictional data, showing that OFCs are not lax. We also provide qualitative analyses of regulatory effectiveness, demonstrating that input-based measures of regulation are inappropriate metrics for comparing jurisdictions. Based on both quantitative input measures and a qualitative assessment, we reject the onshore critique of OFCs as bastions of laxity.

Federal White Collar Sentencing In The United States: A Work In Progress, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

At first blush, it seems odd for an American contributor to an international conference on sentencing to focus on "high end" federal white collar sentencing. After all, federal cases make up a relatively small part of the U.S. criminal justice system. (Between October 2005 and September 2006, about 1,132,290 people were sentenced for a felony in state courts, and 73,009 in federal courts.) Even within the federal system, white collar cases of all sorts are a relatively small part of a criminal docket dominated by immigration, drug, and gun cases, which together comprised nearly 73% of all federal cases in …

The Chinese Reverse Merger Companies (Rmcs) Reassessed: Promising But Challenging, Qingxiu Bu

Journal of International Business and Law

No abstract provided.

Currently Mandated Myopia Of Rule 10b-5: Pay No Attention To That Manager Behind The Mutual Fund Curtain, The , Kelly S. Kibbie

Missouri Law Review

This Article examines the current state of the Rule 10b-5 right of action following a constricting trilogy of Supreme Court cases that have rendered it a myopic remnant of the right previously endorsed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and hundreds of courts over a span of numerous decades. The Roberts Court’s pronouncement in Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders has generated an immense amount of criticism and a slew of conflicting lower court decisions. By effectively abolishing most private Rule 10b-5 claims against secondary actors, including lawyers, accountants, credit rating agencies, underwriters and …

Criminalizing Hacking, Not Dating: Reconstructing The Cfaa Intent Requirement, David Thaw

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

No abstract provided.

Imputation, The Adverse Interest Exception, And The Curious Case Of The Restatement (Third) Of Agency, Mark J. Loewenstein

University of Colorado Law Review

The imputation doctrine in the common law of agency provides that knowledge of an agent acquired in the course of the agency relationship is imputed to the principal. An important exception to the imputation doctrine, known as the adverse interest exception, provides that knowledge is not imputed if it is acquired by the agent in a course of conduct that is entirely adverse to the principal. These doctrines play an important role in sorting out liability when senior management of a corporation engages in a financial fraud that harms the company. Typically, new management is brought in and it sues …

The Dark Side Of The Boom: The Peculiar Dilemma Of Modern False Claims Act Litigation, David S. Torborg

Journal of Law and Health

Spurred by treble damages, substantial penalties, and lucrative relator awards, litigation under federal and state False Claims Act (“FCA”) statutes has exploded in recent years. Much of that explosion stems from aggressive and creative legal theories that challenge controversial industry practices or even well-known loopholes or waste in government policy. Evidence from governmental entities can be critically important in litigating these FCA claims. Unique aspects of False Claims Act actions, however, can aggravate the risk of losing this important evidence, leaving the parties, judges, and juries without the evidentiary record necessary to equitably adjudicate these disputes. Defendants can face the …

Risk-Shifting Through Issuer Liability And Corporate Monitoring, Martin Gelter

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores how issuer liability re-allocates fraud risk and how risk allocation may reduce the incidence of fraud. In the US, the apparent absence of individual liability of officeholders and insufficient monitoring by insurers under-mine the potential deterrent effect of securities litigation. The underlying reasons why both mechanisms remain ineffective are collective action problems under the prevailing dispersed ownership structure, which eliminates the incentives to moni-tor set by issuer liability. This article suggests that issuer liability could potentially have a stronger deterrent effect when it shifts risk to individuals or entities holding a larger financial stake. Thus, it would …

Four Signal Moments In Whistleblower Law: 1983-2013, Geoffrey Christopher Rapp

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

This contribution to the 30th anniversary symposium of the Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal identifies four signal legal changes in the law governing whistleblowers between 1983 and 2013. Three of these are well known and easily identified -- the amendments to the federal False Claims Act enacted in 1986, the Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower protection scheme enacted in 2002, and the Dodd-Frank securities fraud whistleblower bounty program enacted in 2010. Equally important may prove the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (actually enacted in 2006), which created an unusual carrot for state law whistleblower reward and protection reform. After discussing the impact …

Blurring The Lines: The Continuities Between Executive Power And Prerogative, Clement Fatovic

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lexis Nexus Complexus: Comparative Contract Law And International Accounting Collide In The Iasb-Fasb Revenue Recognition Exposure Draft, Kurt S. Schulzke, Gerlinde Berger-Walliser, Pier L. Marchini

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

U.S. and international accounting-standard setters plan to launch a new, global revenue accounting standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, in 2013. Poised at the nexus of comparative contract law and international accounting, the proposal's contract-based revenue recognition model creates new legal risks and opportunities for accountants, lawyers, clients, and financial statement users. Despite its focus on legally enforceable contracts, the proposed standard was drafted without input from the legal community. This Article models the proposal's complex contract-analysis process, demonstrating that its revenue outcomes may vary materially because of seemingly minor interjurisdictional differences in law applicable to "open-price" contracts; offers practice …

Deferred Prosecution And Non-Prosecution Agreements And The Erosion Of Corporate Criminal Liability, David M. Uhlmann

Articles

On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion killed twenty-nine miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, West Virginia. Following the explosion, President Barack Obama vowed that the U.S. Department of Labor would conduct "the most thorough and comprehensive investigation possible" and work with the U.S. Department of Justice ("Justice Department" or the "Department") to address any criminal violations. Later in the month, the President and Vice President flew to West Virginia to eulogize the victims and comfort their families. It was the nation's worst coal mining disaster in forty years. The tragic loss of life at the …

Imputation, The Adverse Interest Exception, And The Curious Case Of The Restatement (Third) Of Agency, Mark J. Loewenstein

Publications

The imputation doctrine in the common law of agency provides that knowledge of an agent acquired in the course of the agency relationship is imputed to the principal. An important exception to the imputation doctrine, known as the adverse interest exception, provides that knowledge is not imputed if it is acquired by the agent in a course of conduct that is entirely adverse to the principal. These doctrines play an important role in sorting out liability when senior management of a corporation engages in a financial fraud that harms the company. Typically, new management is brought in and it sues …

Deferred Prosecutions And Corporate Governance: An Integrated Approach To Investigation And Reform, Lawrence A. Cunningham

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

When evaluating how to proceed against a corporate investigative target, law enforcement authorities often ignore the target’s governance arrangements, while subsequently negotiating or imposing governance requirements, especially in deferred prosecution agreements. Ignoring governance structures and processes amid investigation can be hazardous and implementing improvised reforms afterwards may have severe unintended consequences—particularly when prescribing standardized governance devices. Drawing, in part, on new lessons from three prominent cases—Arthur Andersen, AIG and Bristol-Myers Squibb—this Article criticizes prevailing discord and urges prosecutors to contemplate corporate governance at the outset and to articulate rationales for prescribed changes. Integrating the role of corporate governance into prosecutions …

Competition Agencies With Complex Policy Portfolios: Divide Or Conquer?, William E. Kovacic, David A. Hyman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Antitrust law has been adopted by 120 jurisdictions worldwide. In more than half of these jurisdictions, the agency charged with enforcing antitrust law also has other responsibilities. The assignment of multiple regulatory tasks can affect the performance of a competition agency in complex and subtle ways. We present a framework for analyzing the consequences of creating public bodies with complex policy portfolios. Using examples from across the administrative state, we analyze the forces that shape the content of an agency’s policy duties, and how the portfolio of assigned duties affects the way an agency approaches its assigned tasks, and its …

Automating Vendor Fraud Detection In Enterprise Systems, Kishore Singh, Peter Best, Joseph Mula

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow annually. Many organizations are poorly prepared to prevent and detect fraud. Fraud detection strategies are intended to quickly and efficiently identify fraudulent activities that circumvent preventative measures. In this paper, we adopt a DesignScience methodological framework to develop a model for detection of vendor fraud based on analysis of patterns or signatures identified in enterprise system audit trails. The concept is demonstrated by developing prototype software. Verification of the prototype is achieved by performing a series of experiments. Validation is achieved by independent reviews from auditing practitioners. Key findings of …