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Articles 1 - 20 of 20
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Duty To Creditors Reconsidered - Filling A Much Needed Gap In Corporation Law, Richard A. Booth
The Duty To Creditors Reconsidered - Filling A Much Needed Gap In Corporation Law, Richard A. Booth
Working Paper Series
The most fundamental question of corporation law is to whom does the board of directors of a corporation owe its fiduciary duty. Recently, the question has tended to be whether and under what circumstances the board of directors has the duty to maximize stockholder wealth. But if a corporation is insolvent (or close to it), business decisions designed to maximize stockholder wealth may result in a reduction of creditor wealth. Although the conventional wisdom is that creditors must protect themselves by contractual means, there is a substantial body of case law that says that creditors can assert claims sounding in …
Give Me Equity Or Give Me Death - The Role Of Competition And Compensation In Building Silicon Valley, Richard A. Booth
Give Me Equity Or Give Me Death - The Role Of Competition And Compensation In Building Silicon Valley, Richard A. Booth
Working Paper Series
In this essay, I argue that the preeminence of Silicon Valley as an incubator of technology companies is attributable to equity compensation. Ronald Gilson, relying on the work of AnnaLee Saxenian and others who have noted the tendency of Silicon Valley employees to job hop, has suggested that California law prohibiting the enforcement of non-compete agreements was a major factor in the rise of Silicon Valley (and the demise of Route 128). I extend this line of thought by suggesting that California employers may have relied on equity compensation as a substitute way to bind employees. I argue further that …
Venture Capital, Agency Costs, And The False Dichotomy Of The Corporation, Robert P. Bartlett
Venture Capital, Agency Costs, And The False Dichotomy Of The Corporation, Robert P. Bartlett
Scholarly Works
An implicit dichotomy of the corporation exists in legal scholarship. On one side of the dichotomy rests the publicly held corporation suffering from a significant conflict of interest between its managers and dispersed shareholders; on the other side, the closely held corporation plagued by intershareholder conflict. This Article argues that understanding the agency problems that can exist within a firm demands a rejection of this traditional dichotomy and the theories of the firm built upon it. Using venture capital (VC) finance, this Article demonstrates how this dichotomy obscures how all firms -- public and private -- often face the same …
The Seductive Comparison Of Shareholder And Civic Democracy, Usha Rodrigues
The Seductive Comparison Of Shareholder And Civic Democracy, Usha Rodrigues
Scholarly Works
This Comment takes the common comparison of shareholder democracy and political democracy in a new direction by exploring the parallels between the board of directors and the Electoral College, examining both institutions in light of the differences between nation and corporation and their contrasting histories. Both are "once removed" representative democracies, because both systems only give the voters the right to vote for representatives who then select those who actually govern. The Comment next considers, with a critical eye, the underlying premise that shareholder and civic democracies can be compared at all, given the radically different nature of the corporate …
Measuring Efficiency In Corporate Law: The Role Of Shareholder Primacy, Jill E. Fisch
Measuring Efficiency In Corporate Law: The Role Of Shareholder Primacy, Jill E. Fisch
All Faculty Scholarship
The shareholder primacy norm defines the objective of the corporation as maximization of shareholder wealth. Law and economics scholars have incorporated the shareholder primacy norm into their empirical analyses of regulatory efficiency. An increasingly influential body of scholarship uses empirical methodology to evaluate legal rules that allocate power within the corporation. By embracing the shareholder primacy norm, empirical scholars offer normative assessments about regulatory choices based on the effect of legal rules on measures of shareholder value such as stock price, net profits, and Tobin’s Q.
This Article challenges the foundations of using the shareholder primacy norm to judge corporate …
What Default Rules Teach Us About Corporations; What Understanding Corporations Teaches Us About Default Rules, Tamar Frankel
What Default Rules Teach Us About Corporations; What Understanding Corporations Teaches Us About Default Rules, Tamar Frankel
Faculty Scholarship
This Article addresses corporate law's default rules, which allow corporations to waive their directors' liability for damages based on a breach of their fiduciary duty of care. Most large publicly held corporations have adopted such a waiver in their articles of association. This Article suggests that courts should limit the range of the waivers to the circumstances that existed when the voters voted and to the information they received before they voted. This Article distinguishes between public contracts (legislation) and private contracts (commercial transactions) and the default rules that apply to each. The Article shows that courts view corporations and …
Some Reflections On The Diversity Of Corporate Boards: Women, People Of Color, And The Unique Issues Associated With Women Of Color, Lisa M. Fairfax
Some Reflections On The Diversity Of Corporate Boards: Women, People Of Color, And The Unique Issues Associated With Women Of Color, Lisa M. Fairfax
Faculty Scholarship
As one might expect, there are many similarities between the circumstances of women directors and directors of color, which includes African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. Indeed, both groups began appearing on corporate boards in significant numbers during the same period—right after the Civil Rights Movement pursuant to which the push for racial equality throughout society precipitated efforts to achieve greater representation of people of color as well as women on corporate boards. Moreover, while women and people of color have experienced some increase in board representation over the last few decades, both groups also have encountered significant barriers to …
Taxation And Multinational Activity: New Evidence, New Interpretations, Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley, James R. Hines Jr.
Taxation And Multinational Activity: New Evidence, New Interpretations, Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley, James R. Hines Jr.
Articles
In the midst of rapid integration and globalization, multinational firms still face tax systems that differ among countries, and these differences have the potential to affect major investment and financing decisions. This research covers a wide range of topics, including the impact of indirect taxes as well as of corporate income taxes, the sensitivity of financing decisions to tax rates, the effects of taxes on repatriation policies, the demand for, and impact of, tax havens, and the use of indirect ownership as a means of avoiding taxes. The behavior of US multinational firms as revealed by the evidence collected by …
Tattlers And Trail Blazers: Attorneys' Liability For Clients' Fraud, Barbara Black
Tattlers And Trail Blazers: Attorneys' Liability For Clients' Fraud, Barbara Black
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
No abstract provided.
Comparative Fiscal Federalism: What Can The U.S. Supreme Court And The European Court Of Justice Learn From Each Other's Tax Jurisprudence?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Comparative Fiscal Federalism: What Can The U.S. Supreme Court And The European Court Of Justice Learn From Each Other's Tax Jurisprudence?, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah
Articles
In October 2005, a group of distinguished tax experts from the European Union and the United States, who had never met before, convened at the University of Michigan Law School for a conference on "Comparative Fiscal Federalism: Comparing the U.S. Supreme Court and European Court of Justice Tax Jurisprudence." The purpose of the conference was to shed comparative light on the very different approaches taken by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the U.S. Supreme Court to the question of fiscal federalism. The conference was sponsored by the U-M Law School, U-M's European Union Center, and Harvard Law School's …
Prevention Of Double Deductions Of A Single Loss: Solutions In Search Of A Problem, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn
Prevention Of Double Deductions Of A Single Loss: Solutions In Search Of A Problem, Douglas A. Kahn, Jeffrey H. Kahn
Articles
In the current tax system, a corporation is treated as a separate taxable entity. This tax system is sometimes referred to as an entity tax or a double tax system. Since a corporation is a separate and distinct entity from its owners, the shareholders, the default rule is that transfers between them are treated as realization events. Without a specific Internal Revenue Code (Code) provision providing otherwise, such transactions will also require the parties to recognize the realized gain or loss. Congress has enacted several nonrecognition corporate provisions when forcing the recognition of income could prevent changes to the form …
China's Acquisitions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects, Nicholas C. Howson
China's Acquisitions Abroad - Global Ambitions, Domestic Effects, Nicholas C. Howson
Articles
In the past year or so, the world has observed with seeming trepidation what appears to be a new phenomenon-China's "stepping out" into the world economy. The move, labeled the "Going Out Strategy" by Chinese policy makers, sees China acting in the world not just as a trader of commodities and raw materials, or the provider of inexpensively-produced consumer goods for every corner of the globe, but as a driven and sophisticated acquirer of foreign assets and the equity interests in the legal entities that control such assets. The New Yorker magazine, ever topical and appropriately humorous, highlighted this attention …
Well-Known Seasoned Issuers In Canada, Adam C. Pritchard
Well-Known Seasoned Issuers In Canada, Adam C. Pritchard
Other Publications
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adopted a series of rules relaxing the restrictions imposed on public offerings. The largest public companies - defined as “well-known seasoned issuers” (WKSIs) - received the most extensive regulatory relief. Canada could adopt a version of WKSI status for the top tier of Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) issuers as part of a streamlined POP system.
Careful consideration must be given, however, as to the appropriate standards for WKSI status in Canada. The standards adopted in the U.S. – US$700 million in market capitalization or US$1 billion in nonconvertible debt issued over …
The Irrational Auditor And Irrational Liability, Adam C. Pritchard
The Irrational Auditor And Irrational Liability, Adam C. Pritchard
Articles
This Article argues that less liability for auditors in certain areas might encourage more accurate and useful financial statements, or at least equally accurate statements at a lower cost. Audit quality is promoted by three incentives: reputation, regulation, and litigation. When we take reputation and regulation into account, exposing auditors to potentially massive liability may undermine the effectiveness of reputation and regulation, thereby diminishing integrity of audited financial statements. The relation of litigation to the other incentives that promote audit quality has become more important in light of the sea change that occurred in the regulation of the auditing profession …
The "Bad Man" Goes To Washington: The Effect Of Political Influence On Corporate Duty, Jill E. Fisch
The "Bad Man" Goes To Washington: The Effect Of Political Influence On Corporate Duty, Jill E. Fisch
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Supersize Pay, Incentive Compatibility, And The Volatile Shareholder Interest, William W. Bratton
Supersize Pay, Incentive Compatibility, And The Volatile Shareholder Interest, William W. Bratton
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Women In Corporate Law Teaching: A Tale Of Two Generations, Margaret V. Sachs
Women In Corporate Law Teaching: A Tale Of Two Generations, Margaret V. Sachs
Scholarly Works
This Article is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on [Margaret Harris] Amsler and Part II addresses the second generation. Part III explores a question that was prompted by the second generation and that goes to the heart of this Symposium: Do women corporations professors damage their standing in the academic community by examining the interface between corporate law and gender?
The Equilibrium Content Of Corporate Federalism, William W. Bratton, Joseph A. Mccahery
The Equilibrium Content Of Corporate Federalism, William W. Bratton, Joseph A. Mccahery
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Crime, War & Romanticism: Arthur Andersen And The Nature Of Entity Guilt, David N. Cassuto
Crime, War & Romanticism: Arthur Andersen And The Nature Of Entity Guilt, David N. Cassuto
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
In 2002, Arthur Andersen, LLP stood trial for obstruction of justice. The prosecution offered several theories as to who at the firm had committed the crime but no one theory satisfied all twelve jurors. In an attempt to break its deadlock, the jury asked whether it could convict i f some jurors thought Person A at Andersen had done it and some thought it was Person B. Following argument, the judge ruled that it could convict.
This article argues that the court's response to the jury's query was wrong as a matter of law and policy. The ruling misconstrues the …
Shareholders As Proxies: The Contours Of Shareholder Democracy, Dalia Tsuk Mitchell
Shareholders As Proxies: The Contours Of Shareholder Democracy, Dalia Tsuk Mitchell
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This article explores the long-standing suspicion of the individual shareholder and the corresponding ambivalence about shareholder democracy as it is seen in conversations about the shareholder's role in the modern public corporation throughout the twentieth century.
The article examines two competing conceptions of the shareholder's role in the corporation: one focuses on the role of shareholders as investors, the other emphasizes the role of shareholders as potential participants in corporate management. I argue that scholars and reformers who have conceived of shareholders as investors limited the locus of shareholder democracy to the market. The writings of Louis Brandeis, Henry Manne, …