Digital Commons Network^™

Inequities In Corporate And Securities Law: Disabling The Exploitative Chinese Corporation And Charting A Path To International Commercial Accountability, Jonathan P. Schmidt

San Diego International Law Journal

This article seeks to illuminate these issues and provide a roadmap for the U.S. federal and state legislatures to come together to protect the U.S. investor from the type of accounting fraud and stock misinformation that was the impetus behind enacting the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. First, this article will discuss the legal backdrop and legislative policy behind U.S. laws such as SOX and its enforcement mechanisms, and the ability for shareholders to bring securities class action derivative actions for financial fraud. This article will also discuss trade secrets laws, criminal extradition treaties, international enforcement of judgments, and elucidate the …

Please Be Delicate With My Permanent Record: The Pendulum Inches Towards Absolute Privilege In Merkam V. Wachovia, Joseph W. Catuzzi

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

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 …

Fair Funds And The Sec's Compensation Of Injured Investors, Verity Winship

Florida Law Review

The Fair Fund provision of Sarbanes-Oxley allows the SEC to distribute money penalties to injured investors, heralding a new compensatory role for the agency. The SEC has announced that it will direct money to injured investors whenever possible, but has not articulated clear priorities. This Article fills the gap by introducing terms of debate and proposing a framework for the SEC’s exercise of its discretion.

The Article introduces the concept of “public class counsel,” a public actor that has the dual function of deterrence and victim compensation. The concept describes—and suggests limits to—the SEC’s role in a system in which …

The Supreme Court's Theory Of The Fund, William Birdthistle

All Faculty Scholarship

Just as the firm has long served as the foundational molecule of the U.S. capitalist economy, theories of the firm have for more than a century dominated legal and economic discourse. Ever since Ronald Coase published The Nature of the Firm in 1937 and asked why firms should exist in an efficient market, classicists and neoclassicists have competed to develop theories — predominantly managerialist and contractual — that best explain the structure and behavior of business organizations.

The investment fund, by contrast, has languished at the margins of corporate theory, relegated as simply a minor, if somewhat curious, example of …

Controlling Shareholders In Concentrated Ownership Structures In Singapore, Wai Yee Wan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The talk outlines the corporate governance challenges in respect of listed companies in Singapore that have concentrated shareholdings.

The Global Crackdown On Insider Trading: A Silver Lining To The "Great Reccession", Christopher P. Montagano

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The wake of the Great Recession marked a period of increased enforcement of insider trading violations by nation-states and self-regulatory organizations overseeing stock markets around the world. Before discussing the heightened global enforcement of insider trading, this Note explains the development of insider trading regulation by focusing on U.S., EU, and China law. This Note argues that the heightened global enforcement of insider trading violations in the wake of the Great Recession is a sign of a shared perception by market regulators around the world that there is a need to restore market confidence. Strong enforcement of insider trading regulations …

Conflicting Currents: The Obligation To Maintain Inviolate Client Confidences And The New Sec Attorney Conduct Rules, Keith Paul Bishop, James F. Fotenos, Steven K. Hazen, James R. Walther, Nancy H. Wojtas

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The End Of The Internal Compliance World As We Know It, Or An Enhancement Of The Effectiveness Of Securities Law Enforcement? Bounty Hunting Under The Dodd-Frank Act's Whistleblower Provision, Justin Blount, Spencer Markel

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

In the wake of Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme and the recent economic crisis stemming largely from loosely regulated subprime lending and mortgage-backed securities, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010, signaling loudly and clearly that change is coming to Wall Street. But Wall Street is not the only one receiving a message. Buried deep within the 2,319 pages of the Dodd-Frank Act, companies can find Section 922, the whistleblower provision, which provides a bounty for whistleblowers who report securities violations to the Securities and Exchange Commission.These bounty provisions and …

The Judicial Access Barriers To Remedies For Securities Fraud., Michael J. Kaufman

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Shareholder Litigation After The Meltdown, Daniel J. Morrissey

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Public Enforcement Model For Directors' Duty Of Oversight, Renee M. Jones, Michelle Welsh

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article proposes a public enforcement model for the fiduciary duties of corporate directors. Under the dominant model of corporate governance, the principal function of the board of directors is to oversee the conduct of senior corporate officials. When directors fail to provide proper oversight, the consequences can be severe for shareholders, creditors, employees, and society at large. Despite general agreement on the importance of director oversight, courts have yet to develop a coherent doctrine governing director liability for the breach of oversight duties. In Delaware, the dominant state for U.S. corporate law, the courts tout the importance of board …

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 …

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.

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

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

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

Articles

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 …

Enhanced "Blue Sky" Enforcement: A Path To Help Solve Our Public School Funding Dilemma, Marc I. Steinberg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Unjustified Judicial Creation Of Class Certification Merits Trials In Securities, Michael J. Kaufman, John M. Wunderlich

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The class action device is vital to deterring securities fraud and remedying its victims, who almost never suffer losses sufficient to justify an individual suit. Nonetheless, the federal courts have begun to convert the class certification process into a premature trial on the merits, thereby precluding victims of securities fraud from pursuing otherwise valid claims of financial wrongdoing. In particular, in a series of important decisions, the federal courts have required plaintiffs to prove the essential elements of their securities fraud claims at the preliminary class certification stage.

This Article demonstrates why this trend should end. The judicial creation of …

The Lion Awakens: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - 1977 To 2010, Michael B. Bixby

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article discusses the history, purposes and provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and traces its use and enforcement activity from 1977 to the present. This once little-used law has in recent years become the focus of aggressive activity by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The manuscript also includes numerous charts reporting on key cases and enforcement activities over the last thirty-three years by the DOJ and SEC, as well as other information and statistics regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Lying And Getting Caught: An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Securities Class Action Settlements On Targeted Firms, Lin (Lynn) Bai, James D. Cox, Randall S. Thomas

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Private suits have long been championed as a necessary mechanism not only to compensate investors for harms they suffer from financial frauds but also to enhance the deterrence of wrongdoing. But many critics have claimed that there is a hidden dark side to the successful prosecution of a securities class action. In this paper, we shed light on these issues by examining whether the revelation of earlier misstatements, the initiation of private suit, and the payment of a substantial settlement, weaken the defendant firm so that the firm is permanently worse off as a consequence of the settlement.

We find …

Lying And Getting Caught: An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Securities Class Action Settlements On Targeted Firms, Randall Thomas, Lynn Bai, James Cox

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The ongoing Great Recession has triggered numerous proposals to improve the regulation of financial markets and, most importantly, the regulation of organizations such as credit rating agencies, underwriters, hedge funds, and banks, whose behavior is believed to have caused the credit crisis that spawned the economic collapse. Not surprisingly, some of the reform efforts seek to strengthen the use of private litigation . Private suits have long been championed as a necessary mechanism not only to ompensate investors for harms they suffer from financial frauds but also to enhance deterrence of wrongdoing. However, in recent years there has been a …

The Multienforcer Approach To Securities Fraud Deterrence: A Critical Analysis, Amanda M. Rose

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Participants in the U.S. capital markets can be sued for securities fraud by a mishmash of enforcers, including the SEC, class action plaintiffs, and state regulators. Does this multi-enforcer approach make sense from a deterrence perspective? This Article suggests that the answer is probably no. Although in theory there are conditions under which a multi-enforcer approach would promote optimal deterrence, it is unclear at best that those conditions exist in the United States. And further empirical research, while warranted, is unlikely to resolve the issue definitively. The status quo tends to persevere in the face of this sort of irreducible …

Reframing And Reforming The Securities And Exchange Commission: Lessons From Literature On Change Leadership, Joan Mcleod Heminway

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

The article discusses the lessons learned from the restructuring of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The strengths and weakness of the SEC reform measures are highlighted. Key reform proposals stemming from the global financial crisis and reform efforts being undertaken as of the spring of 2010 include overhauling or abolishing the SEC, managing the SEC through the Federal Reserve or the Department of the Treasury, and combining the SEC with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times: Securities Regulation Scholarship And Teaching In The Global Financial Crisis, Joan Macleod Heminway

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Resolving The Continuing Controversy Regarding Confidential Informants In Private Securities Fraud Litigation., Michael J. Kaufman

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Unjustified Judicial Creation Of Class Certification Merits Trials In Securities Fraud Actions, Michael J. Kaufman

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Lying And Getting Caught: An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Securities Class Action Settlements On Targeted Firms, James D. Cox, Lynn Bai, Randall S. Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

The ongoing Great Recession has triggered numerous proposals to improve the regulation of financial markets and, most importantly, the regulation of organizations such as credit rating agencies, underwriters, hedge funds, and banks, whose behavior is believed to have caused the credit crisis that spawned the economic collapse. Not surprisingly, some of the reform efforts seek to strengthen the use of private litigation. Private suits have long been championed as a necessary mechanism not only to compensate investors for harms they suffer from financial frauds but also to enhance deterrence of wrongdoing. However, in recent years there has been a chorus …