Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Samaca, Llc, Order On Defendants' Motion For Attorneys' Fees And Expenses And Plaintiff Samaca, Llc's Cross Motion To Compel Arbitration Of Defendant's Motion For Legal Expenses, Alice D. Bonner

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Nancy Johnson Et Al., Order On Discovery Dispute, Kelly Lee Ellerbee

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Nancy Johnson Et Al., Order Denying Motion To Withdraw As Counsel, Kathy Lee Ellerbee

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Corporate Criminal Liability: Toward A Compliance-Orientated Approach, Gustavo A. Jimenez

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Under U.S. federal law, a corporation can be held criminally liable for the crimes of its employees and agents. The Department of Justice's U.S. Attorneys' Manual lays out a list of factors prosecutors can evaluate when deciding whether or not to prosecute a corporate entity. The Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors have various tools at their disposal, including deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) and non-prosecution agreements (NPAs) as alternatives to going to trial. Prosecutors have used DPAs and NPAs in recent cases, allowing the government to ensure that corporate entities comply with investigations, enact compliance programs, and continue to follow laws …

The Value Of Insider Control, Benjamin Means

William & Mary Law Review

According to conventional wisdom, insider control of businesses is detrimental to the interests of noncontrolling investors. Family-run businesses, in particular, are seen as nepotistic and inefficient. Yet, commentators have overestimated the dangers of insider control and overlooked its potential benefits for all stakeholders. Controlling owners have a personal stake that gives them reason to identify with their business and to adopt responsible business practices capable of creating lasting value. A stewardship model of insider control helps explain the continuing vitality of family businesses as well as the success of recent public offerings by Facebook, Google, and Snapchat involving low-vote or …

Greenlife Energy Solutions, Llc, Order On Motions To Dismiss, Kelly Lee Ellerbe

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Morris Hardwick Schneider, Llc Order On Plaintiff's Motion To Compel, Kelly Lee Ellerbee

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Drummond Financial Services, Llc, Order On Pending Motions And Discovery Disputes, John J. Goger

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Premier Porfolio 2, Llc Order On Motion To Dismiss, Elizabeth E. Long

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Navigating Sino-American Business Relationships, Ryan Stenquist

Marriott Student Review

Relationships between American and Chinese companies have never been more important or profitable as they are now. With linguistic, moral, governmental, and legal systems developed entirely independent of each other for thousands of years, these relationships also prove the most difficult and complex to navigate. This article explores mistakes foreigners often make while doing business in China, the current environment and culture of joint ventures with native Chinese, and how to succeed in the challenging yet rewarding economy now opening up to the world.

Morris Hardwick Schneider, Llc Order Striking Defendant Divot Holdings, Llc's Answer, Kelly Lee Ellerbee

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Bronner V. Hardy Et Al., Order On Pending Motions For Summary Judgment, Melvin Westmoreland

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Cambridge Swinerton, Llc, Order Denying Defendant New Alenco Windows, Ltd.'S Motion To Transfer Venue, Alice D. Bonner

Superior Court of Fulton County: Metro Atlanta Business Case Division Opinions

No abstract provided.

Project Based Learning For Administrative Law, Ann M. Johnson

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This problem includes a case study of an incident (or crisis) that occurred and a regulation that was created by an administrative agency as a response. Students identify an agency and regulation and analyze agency action based on legal and media research.

Myth Of The Attorney Whistleblower, Carliss N. Chatman

Scholarly Articles

Notwithstanding the political grandstanding and legal regimes put in place to prevent the next Enron, this article explores whether attorney whistleblower provisions provided in the Standards of Professional Conduct for Attorneys Appearing and Practicing Before the Commission in the Representation of an Issuer and in the Model Rules of Professional Conduct are effective. When faced with attorney involvement in Enron, Congress passed § 307 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (Sarbanes), which required the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to amend its standards governing the conduct of attorneys practicing before the SEC. In response, the SEC and the American Bar Association …

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Rise Of Hedge Fund Activist Shareholders And The Duty Of Loyalty, Soo Young Hong

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Shareholder activism has been a growing problem in the corporate world, creating numerous dilemmas for the board of directors of companies. Activist shareholders can unsettle a company, pressuring the directors to make decisions according to the course of business the activists would prefer, and thus interfering with the traditional role of directors as the decision-makers of a company. With this new development in the business world, legal scholars have been debating if this activism needs to be controlled and, if so, what measures can be taken to reach a balance. This Note examines the traditional corporate principles such as the …

List Voting’S Travels: The Importance Of Being Independent In The Boardroom, Maria Lucia Passador

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The life of the law, especially with regard to corporations, is strongly influenced by experience and practice. The board, a living element of corporate law, is therefore one of the most noteworthy aspects to be studied, given its relevant implications and role as the lifeblood of scholarly debates.

This Article offers a novel contribution to the assessment of list voting, a fairly unique Italian system that has been increasingly appreciated by institutional investors. A hand-picked dataset that stretches from 2005 to 2015 shows a positive correlation between minority-appointed directors in the boardroom and dividend payouts. Furthermore, the findings shed light …

The Outsized Influence Of The Fcpa?, Veronica Root Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

The current power and influence of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) is really quite remarkable when one considers the statute was largely ignored for its first twenty-five years of existence. This statute, meant to reign in corruption by United States companies doing business abroad; has generated billions of dollars in revenue for the United States government; prompted the development of law firm practice groups and law school courses; become the subject of numerous scholarly articles; and has, arguably, made anti-bribery efforts the highest of priorities for multinational corporations engaged in robust compliance efforts. Corporations, scholars, and the public would …

Shareholders United?, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

Securities regulation has a way of crossing into other lanes. What public companies do is substantive regulation. How they govern themselves while doing it-or more importantly, how they disclose it-is securities regulation. So it is no surprise that the perennial concern over regulating money in politics should also become a question of federal securities regulation. The Shareholders United Act (the "Act")-passed by the House of Representatives as part of House Bill 1, an early, major piece of legislation in the 116th Congress-does just that. The Act would require that before engaging in political spending, public companies poll shareholders on how …

Securities Disclosure As Soundbite: The Case Of Ceo Pay Ratios, Steven A. Bank, George S. Georgiev

Faculty Articles

This Article analyzes the history, design, and effectiveness of the highly controversial CEO pay ratio disclosure rule, which went into effect in 2018. Based on a regulatory mandate contained in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the rule requires public companies to disclose the ratio between CEO pay and median worker pay as part of their annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The seven-year rulemaking process was politically contentious and generated a level of public engagement that was virtually unprecedented in the long history of the SEC disclosure regime. The SEC sought to minimize compliance costs by providing …

Small Business Fintech Lending: The Need For Comprehensive Regulation, Lenore Palladino

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The 28.7 million small businesses in the United States—99% of all American businesses—are the backbone of the American economy. Historically, small businesses relied on community banks for their credit needs. Over the last decade, however, small businesses increasingly have turned to “fintech” lenders—nonbank lenders that are largely unregulated. Nonbank consumer lending is governed by consumer protection statutes, but nonbank small business lending is outside of any clear regulatory framework that would protect borrowers from potentially predatory practices. This Article argues that the optimal regulatory regime is a combination of both state authority over fintech lenders and inclusion of small business …

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: A Novel Agency Design With Familiar Issues, Thomas Arning

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This Note examines the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with a specific focus on its single-director structure. The balance of authority between agencies and the three branches of government has been a point of contention for generations, especially since the early twentieth century. This area of the law became even more contested following the financial crisis in 2008. As part of the response to the perceived abuses that led to the global recession, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ultimately opting to give it a single director as opposed to a board structure. Proponents of this regime …

Decoding Smart Contracts: Technology, Legitimacy, & Legislative Uniformity, Jared Arcari

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Blockchain technology is increasingly permeating the everyday lives of countless people. Applications of the cutting-edge technology range from secured banking to tracking mortgage titles. A particular blockchain technology, dubbed “smart contracts,” has the potential to revolutionize how individuals and companies securely contract with each other. Smart contracts, however, are not widely employed, mainly because potential users are uncertain of their enforceability as contracts under existing state contract laws. Similar skepticism slowed the acceptance of electronic signatures in the late 1990s, but was resolved ultimately through a model uniform act recognizing electronic signatures’ effectiveness across interstate borders. This Note proposes a …

The Eighteenth Annual Albert A. Destefano Lecture On Corporate, Securities, & Financial Law At The Fordham Corporate Law Center: Corwin V. Kkr Financial Holdings Llc— An “After-Action Report”, The Honorable Joseph R. Slights Iii, Matthew Diller

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

A New Standard For Governance: Reflections On Worker Representation In The United States, Julian Constain

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The contemporary state of corporate law in the United States is one that is skewed toward the archaic principle of shareholder primacy. This narrow conception of corporate purpose has resulted in governance mechanisms that tend to overlook the many stakeholders that are affected by, and, in turn, affect the bottom line of modern corporations. In the wake of the recently proposed Accountable Capitalism Act, this Note investigates the viability of adopting a system of mandated worker board representation—codetermination—in the United States. The Note employs a comparative analysis of the German and Swedish experiences with codetermination, and then evaluates the policy, …

The Eu’S Struggles With Collective Action For Securities Fraud: An American Perspective, Dan Morrissey

Texas A&M Law Review

Notwithstanding the apparent exit of the United Kingdom, the European Union (“EU”) has grown in membership and power since its modest beginnings after World War II, now rivaling the U.S. in economic strength. With the goal of promoting the security and prosperity of all the citizens of the countries that belong to it, the EU is pressing ahead to adopt laws that will promote their political and financial integration. Along those lines, it has also recently acknowledged a deficiency in the legal systems of its member states when it comes to allowing collective actions for victims of various types of …

Island Invasion: The Silent Crisis In Hawaii, Sophia Janssen

Pomona Senior Theses

Keeping out invasive species may, upon first review, seem like a trivial environmental cry from ecologists and deep environmentalists; a belated wish to return to an undeveloped world where nature was pristine. However invasive species create problems that impact all of us and can have far more severe consequences than changing a stunning landscape. These problems are heightened in islands like Hawaii, where the fragile ecosystems have developed over centuries of evolution and adaptation. The introduction of a disease-carrying mosquito can put the people of Hawaii at risk to many vector-born illnesses and create an epidemic, taking human life. The …

The Hague Rules On Business And Human Rights Arbitration, Bruno Simma, Diane Desierto, Martin Doe Rodriguez, Jan Eijsbouts, Ursula Kriebaum, Pablo Lumerman, Abiola Makinwa, Richard Meeran, Sergio Puig, Steven Ratner, Giorgia Sangiuolo, Martijn Scheltema, Anne Van Aaken, Katerina Yiannibas

Other Publications

The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration provide a set of procedures for the arbitration of disputes related to the impact of business activities on human rights. The Hague Rules are based on the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (with new article 1, paragraph 4, as adopted in 2013) (the “UNCITRAL Rules”), with modifications needed to address certain issues likely to arise in the context of business and human rights disputes. Each article is accompanied by a commentary, which includes background on the drafting of various provisions in the Rules, explaining in …

The Compliance Process, Veronica Root

Faculty Scholarship

Even as regulators and prosecutors proclaim the importance of effective compliance programs, failures persist. Organizations fail to ensure that they and their agents comply with legal and regulatory requirements, industry practices, and their own internal policies and norms. From the companies that provide our news, to the financial institutions that serve as our bankers, to the corporations that make our cars, compliance programs fail to prevent misconduct each and every day. The causes of these compliance failures are multifaceted and include general enforcement deficiencies, difficulties associated with overseeing compliance programs within complex organizations, and failures to establish a culture of …

Private Ordering And Improving Information Flow To The Board Of Directors: The Duty To Inform Bylaw, Jennifer O'Hare

Faculty Publications

It seems that almost every day there is another report of a corporate scandal at a public company. Whether the scandal involves sexual harassment by senior management or widespread illegal conduct by employees, the first question asked by investors and the media is usually, “Where was the board?” And the board’s response is almost always, “We didn’t know.” Directors of public companies rely on officers to provide the information the board needs to manage the corporation, but, strangely enough, officers may not even be legally required to provide information to the board. The Delaware General Corporation Law is silent on …