Digital Commons Network^™

Encouraging Litigation: Why Dodd-Frank Goes Too Far In Eliminating The Procedural Difficulties In Sarbanes-Oxley, Jessica Luhrs

UC Law Business Journal

This note reviews the whistleblower protections in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These sweeping protections decrease the barriers and increase the incentives for corporate whistleblowers, in part by decreasing procedural hurdles and providing potentially staggering cash bounties. This note argues that these whistleblower protections go too far and are likely to increase the number of false and meritless claims filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This note concludes that the Securities and Exchange Commission should address these shortcomings and supplement its regulatory efforts by incentivizing corporate transparency, penalizing those who file false claims, and encouraging …

How The "Unintended Consequences" Story Promotes Unjust Intent And Impact., Martha T. Mccluskey

Journal Articles

In the guise of critical analysis of the limits of law reform, the familiar phrase “unintended consequences” serves to rationalize rising inequality and to undermine democratic accountability. This paper examines how the phrase promotes a story of disentitlement, using the recent financial crisis as an example. By naturalizing inequality as power beyond law’s reach, this phrase’s message that benign law is likely to bring unequal consequences dovetails with a seemingly contradictory message that benign intent, rather than harmful impact, is what primarily counts for evaluating inequality.

As part of a LatCrit XV symposium taking a “bottom-up” view of the recent …

Keep Your Friends Close But Your Auditors Closer: Corporations Risk Waiver When Independent Auditors Request Work Product, Daniel M. Reach

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

On The Development Of A Digital Forensics Curriculum, Manghui Tu, Dianxiang Xu, Samsuddin Wira, Cristian Balan, Kyle Cronin

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Computer Crime and computer related incidents continue their prevalence and frequency, resulting in losses approaching billions of dollars. To fight against these crimes and frauds, it is urgent to develop digital forensics education programs to train a suitable workforce that can effectively investigate computer crimes and incidents. There is presently no standard to guide the design of digital forensics curriculum for an academic program. In this research, previous work on digital forensics curriculum design and existing education programs are thoroughly investigated. Both digital forensics educators and practitioners were surveyed and results were analyzed to determine the industry and law enforcement …

Overcriminalization For Lack Of Better Options: A Celebration Of Bill Stuntz, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

The unity of Bill Stuntz's character – his profound integrity – makes it easy to move from a celebration of his friendship (which I’ve treasured since we first met back in 1985) to one of his scholarship, for creativity, wisdom, and humility are strengths not just of Bill himself but of his work. Even as his broad brush strokes have fundamentally advanced our understanding of the interplay between substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice institutions over time, Bill's work – like Bill himself – welcomes and endures sustained engagement. Humility is appropriate for me, too, as I offer …

Further Perspectives On Corporate Wrongdoing, In Pari Delicto, And Auditor Malpractice, Deborah A. Demott

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Institutionalization, Investment Adviser Regulation, And The Hedge Fund Problem, Anita K. Krug

UC Law Journal

This Article contends that more effective regulation of investment advisers could be achieved by recognizing that the growth of hedge funds, private equity funds, and other private funds in recent decades is a manifestation of institutionalization in the investment advisory context. That is, investment advisers today commonly advise these “institutions,” which have supplanted other, smaller investors as advisory clients. However, the federal securities statute governing investment advisers, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, does not address the role of private funds as institutions that now intermediate those smaller investors’ relationships to investment advisers. Consistent with that failure, investment adviser regulation …

An Original Take On Originalism, Christopher Slobogin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The argument that Professor Orin Kerr proffers in An Equilibrium-Adjustment Theory of the Fourth Amendment' is simple: Fourth Amendment law ought to be structured to ensure that the balance of power between government and citizenry remains constant. This equilibrium-adjustment theory is elegant and, because it rests on a relatively "neutral" historical foundation, might be attractive to judges and scholars from different perspectives. Contrary to Kerr's assertion, however, it does not easily explain many of the Court's cases, nor does it help address the most difficult Fourth Amendment issues facing the Court today. The historical foundations on which it rests are …

When We Lie To The Government, It's A Crime, But When The Government Lies To Us, It's … Constitutional?, Harvey Gilmore

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Post Racialism?, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Law Faculty Scholarship

The 2008 election of President Barack Obama represents a halcyon moment in U.S. history. President Obama’s election begs a critical question: whether his nationwide landslide victory catapulted the United States, with its sordid racial past, into a truly post-racial place as many claim. While Obama’s election was possible due to important changes that have taken place in the United States in the past fifty years, the reality is that profound disparities continue to exist between minority and white Americans that show no sign of dissipating during this Obama presidency. Of these profound disparities, some of the most striking include those …

The Criminalization Of Immigration And The International Norm Of Non-Discrimination: Deportation And Detention In U.S. Immigration Law, Barbara A. Frey, X. Kevin Zhao

Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality

No abstract provided.

When The Bezzle Bursts: Restitutionary Distribution Of Assets After Ponzi Schemes Enter Bankruptcy, Mallory A. Sullivan

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fraud On The Market: An Action Without A Cause, Amanda Rose

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This is a response to William W. Bratton & Michael L. Wachter, The Political Economy of Fraud on the Market, 160 U. PA. L. REV. 69 (2011). Bratton and Wachter argue that fraud-on-the-market class actions (FOTM) should be eliminated and replaced with stepped-up public enforcement efforts targeted at individual wrongdoers (rather than the corporate enterprise, the FOTM target of choice). In this Response, I do not disagree: My own scholarship has similarly emphasized the benefits of shifting away from FOTM to greater reliance on public enforcement mechanisms. Instead, I take the opportunity to elaborate on the deterrence and corporate governance …

Internet Voting, Security, And Privacy, Jeremy Epstein

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Finding Equilibrium: Exploring Due Process Violations In The Whistleblower Provisions Of The Fraud Enforecement And Recovery Act Of 2009, Laura Hough

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Criminal Class Action, Adam S. Zimmerman, David Jaros

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the past ten years, in a variety of high-profile corporate scandals, prosecutors have sought billions of dollars in restitution for crimes ranging from environmental dumping and consumer scams to financial fraud. In what we call “criminal class action” settlements, prosecutors distribute that money to groups of victims as in a civil class action while continuing to pursue the traditional criminal justice goals of retribution and deterrence.

Unlike civil class actions, however, the emerging criminal class action lacks critical safeguards for victims entitled to compensation. While prosecutors are encouraged, and even required by statute, to seek victim restitution, they lack …

Investors And Employees As Relief Defendants In Investment Fraud Receiverships: Promoting Efficiency By Following The Plain Meaning Of "Legitimate Claim Or Ownership Interest", Jared A. Wilkerson

W&M Law Student Publications

Relief defendants are nominal, innocent parties who hold funds traceable to the receivership but have no legitimate claim or ownership interest in them. These nominal parties, as opposed to full or primary defendants, have no cause of action asserted against them, and if they show no legitimate claim to the funds traced to the receivership, the funds are disgorged — generally at summary judgment. This seemingly simple relief defendant tool is used by receivers and regulatory agencies to quickly recover receivership funds for ultimate distribution to creditors. Recently, however, conflict has arisen in federal courts concerning the meaning of “legitimate …

The False Claims Act And The Eroding Scienter In Healthcare Fraud Litigation, Richard Doan

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

This article addresses the federal government's expansive methods in tackling healthcare fraud, particularly in misapplying the False Claims Act. Although tasked with the obligation to curtail the fraudulent submission of Medicare & Medicaid claims, the U.S. government must rein in the current trend to utilize the False Claims Act against smaller medical providers. As the Act's original focus has ebbed in significance, the government has increasingly applied the False Claims Act to circumstances that do not evince actual fraud. In doing so, federal courts have effectively eroded the statute's critical scienter requirement. The federal common-law doctrines of "payment by mistake" …

The Evolutionary Biology Of Fungi And Fraud, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

In this Article, the authors-a law professor and a biologist-offer a fresh perspective on the use of broad federal fraud statutes to combat fraud by drawing a comparison with the use of multi-site fungicides to combat plant disease. Multi-site fungicides are effective at preventing the evolution of resistant strains of fungi, but they are subject to increased regulatory scrutiny amid concerns about off-target toxicity. Similarly, broad fraud statutes serve as a stopgap to prevent the evolution of new types of fraud, but they are widely criticized as unduly vague and as interfering with the operation of specific fraud statutes. Biologists' …

Indemnification And Advancement Through An Agency Lens, Deborah A. Demott

Law and Contemporary Problems

DeMott discusses the doctrines that define entitlements to indemnification. In the corporate context, indemnification is better grounded, as in the Model Business Corporation Act (MBCA), in the necessity of furnishing corporate directors with appropriate protection against personal risk. To be sure, as the MBCA's official comments implicitly acknowledge, the position of officers, especially senior executive officers, does not fit neatly and exclusively into either an "agent" or a "non-agent" category for indemnification purposes.

The Future Of Hedge Fund Regulation: A Comparative Approach: United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, And Germany, Anne Riviere

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Transnational Securities Fraud And The Extraterritorial Application Of U.S. Securities Laws: Challenges And Opportunities, Genevieve Beyea

Global Business Law Review

With globalization, securities markets have become increasingly interconnected, and securities fraud has frequently crossed borders, creating problems for national regulators seeking to deter and punish fraud. The United States’ well-developed private enforcement mechanism for securities fraud is very attractive to investors around the world who are harmed by transnational securities fraud, particularly those from countries where private enforcement mechanisms do not exist or fraud is under-regulated. The application of U.S. securities law to foreign investors, however, presents a number of challenges, creating the potential for both under and overregulation as well as possible conflict with the regulatory systems of other …

The Tenth Annual Albert A. Destefano Lecture On Corporate, Securities & Financial Law. Corporate Accountability: Governance And Compensation Issues, Stanley Sporkin, Todd Lang, Gary Naftalis, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Louise Story

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY: GOVERNANCE AND COMPENSATION ISSUES

Outsourcing Fraud Detection: The Analyst As Dodd-Frank Whistleblower, Luke Roosevelt Hornblower

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

United States V. Nacchio: The Tenth Circuit’S Civil Approach To Sentencing For Insider Trading, Amy Dominick Padgett

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Credit-Monitoring Damages In Cybersecurity Tort Litigation, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

When someone improperly accesses or discloses an individual’s personal information, the subject of that data breach is often at an increased risk of identity theft. One way for an affected data subject to guard against this risk is to subscribe to a credit-monitoring service. Recently, potential cybersecurity defendants have provided credit-monitoring services to affected data subjects voluntarily, and courts have approved credit-monitoring compensation as part of class-action settlements. These developments demonstrate that credit-monitoring expenditures are both reasonable and necessary when a serious breach of data security occurs. Furthermore, the economic loss rule should not bar recovery of credit-monitoring damages because …

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act: What Caused The Financial Crisis And Will Dodd-Frank Prevent Future Crises, Charles W. Murdock

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Fraud On The Market, William Wilson Bratton, Michael L. Wachter

Articles

The fraud-on-the-market class action no longer enjoys much academic support. The justifications traditionally advanced by its defenders-compensation for out-of-pocket loss and deterrence of fraud-are thought to have failed due to the action's real world dependence on enterprise liability and issuer-funded settlements. The compensation justification collapses when considered from the point of view of different types of shareholders. Well-diversified shareholders' receipts and payments of damages balance over time and amount to a wash before payment of litigation costs. The shareholders arguably in need of compensation--fundamental value investors who rely on published reports--are undercompensated due to pro rata distribution of settlement proceeds …

The Rise In Elder Bankruptcy Filings And The Failure Of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, John A. E. Pottow

Articles

Recent empirical legal scholarship on the consumer bankruptcy system has uncovered a marked rise in the proportion of elder Americans filing for relief under the Bankruptcy Code. But these studies have not probed the reasons behind that rise, an omission this Article seeks to address. Professor John Pottow and colleagues recently assembled the new dataset of the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), the largest national sample of consumer debtors in this country, which he uses to explore the sources of elder bankruptcy. The findings are both striking and ominous. While multiple factors, such as health problems and medical debts, contribute to …

Breaking Past The Parallax: Finding The True Place Of Lawyers In Securities Fraud, Marianne C. Adams

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Lawyers often play an integral part in business transactions and securities offerings. This puts lawyers on the sidelines of not only great business successes, but also, every so often, tremendous failures. Because they are viewed by many as gatekeepers, and in that role provide a degree of assurance (with their reputational capital) that gross illegalities will not occur, a series of questions arise in the minds of many when illegalities do happen on attorneys’ watch. This Note analyzes the legal standards that are in play and those that should be imposed when lawyers aid or abet a fraud. Part I …