Law Commons^™

In The Shadow Of Delaware - The Rise Of Hostile Takeovers In Japan, Curtis J. Milhaupt

Faculty Scholarship

Despite longstanding predictions to the contrary, hostile takeovers have arrived in Japan. This Essay explains why and explores the implications of this phenomenon, not only for Japanese corporate governance, but also for our understanding of corporate law development around the world today. Delaware law figures prominently in the recent Japanese events. A highprofile battle for corporate control has just generated a judicial standard for takeover defenses that might be called a Unocal rule with Japanese characteristics. Meanwhile, ministy-endorsed takeover guidelines have been formulated that are heavily influenced by the familiar "threat" and "proportionality" tests under Delaware law, along with many …

Separation And The Function Of Corporation Law, Ronald J. Gilson

Faculty Scholarship

I am delighted to participate in taking up Professor William Klein's suggestion that we could learn something by attempting a functional typology of corporation law. As a starting point, any typology must be animated by an underlying theory whose terms dictate the lines the typology draws. I want to focus my contribution at the level of the theory that might animate the architecture of this grid. To see what I mean by this, think of the Sesame Street version of Edward Levi's classic, An Introduction to Legal Reasoning. The character points at a board on which there are pictures …

The Post-Enron Identity Crisis Of The Business Lawyer, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

The practices and institutions of business lawyering are undergoing a reassessment and revision as radical as anything that has occurred since the late nineteenth century, when the modern professional association and the modern corporate law firm were born. The pace of change has intensified,but its directions remain contested. The articles in this colloquium depict a corporate bar torn between competing role conceptions along a variety of dimensions.

Contextual Analysis Of Tax Ownership, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

Ownership is one of the most fundamental concepts in tax law, yet it remains remarkably confused. The uncertainty inhibits tax planning, leads to inconsistent responses from the government, and produces unexpected outcomes in the courts. There has been no shortage of scholarly attention to the issue, but most of the commentary has been either exceedingly narrow or focused on far-reaching reforms. As a result, the law of tax ownership lacks conceptual foundation. This article attempts to remedy the deficiency by proposing a comprehensive approach to tax ownership and demonstrating that the doctrine may (and should) be significantly clarified without a …

Can Lawyers Wear Blinders? Gatekeepers And Third-Party Opinions, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

The question in the title may seem to answer itself. But it does not; indeed, the question has been framed to explain my difficulty with Professor Schwarcz's position on third-party opinions. Frankly, Steven Schwarcz has taken a bold, tough position. Addressing what he sees as issues of "first impression," he asks "what it means for lawyers to issue legal opinions that create negative externalities," and "[i]f lawyers issuing legal opinions owe a duty to the public as well as to the opinion recipient." These are large, possibly even imponderable questions, but he answers them crisply and succinctly in the manner …

Takeovers In The Boardroom: Burke Versus Schumpeter, Ronald J. Gilson, Reinier Kraakman

Faculty Scholarship

We are delighted to participate in a 25th anniversary assessment of Martin Lipton's 1979 article, Takeover Bids in the Target's Boardroom. This is a remarkably prescient article that demonstrates an uncanny ear for an emerging issue. From his vantage point inside targets' boardrooms – and, we assume, also from inside the nearby offices of investment bankers – Lipton spotted a gathering storm on the horizon and sought to channel the emerging issue of takeover policy in a direction that accorded with his own fundamental convictions as well as the interests of his clients. As every academic knows, early intervention …

Executive Compensation: If There's A Problem, What's The Remedy? The Case For "Compensation Discussion And Analysis", Jeffrey N. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

High levels of executive compensation have triggered an intense debate over whether compensation results primarily from competitive pressures in the market for managerial services or from managerial overreaching. Professors Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried have advanced the debate with their recent book, Pay Without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation, which forcefully argues that current compensation levels are best explained by managerial rent-seeking, not by arm's-length bargaining designed to create the optimum pay and performance nexus. This paper expresses three sorts of reservations with their analysis and advances its own proposals. First, enhancing shareholder welfare is not, as a …

Conflicts Of Interest In Publicly-Traded And Closely-Held Corporations: A Comparative And Economic Analysis, Zohar Goshen

Faculty Scholarship

Conflicts of interest in corporate law can be addressed by two main alternatives: a requirement of a majority of the minority vote or the imposition of duties of loyalty and fairness. A comparison of Delaware, the UK, Canada, and Israel reveals that while the conflicts of interest problem within publicly-traded corporations receives different treatment in the different jurisdictions — either a fairness rule or a majority of the minority rule — closely-held corporations receive the same treatment of an imposition of duties of loyalty and fairness. This article explains this finding, demonstrating that determining which of these rules is adopted …

The 527 Problem ... And The Buckley Problem, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

In the world of campaign finance, 2004 was without a doubt the year of the 527 organization. No other aspect of campaign financing received as much press coverage or public attention as the rise of the 527s. Expenditures by 527s – named after the section of the Internal Revenue Code under which they are organized – active in federal elections amounted to at least $405 million, accounting for more than one-tenth of total federal election spending and perhaps twenty to twenty-five percent of spending in the presidential campaign. Federal Election Commission ("FEC") Chairman Scott E. Thomas recently observed that "[there …

Same Sex Marriage And Its Implications For Employee Benefits: Proceedings Of The 2005 Meeting Of The Association Of American Law Schools Sections On Employee Benefits, And Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity Issues, Maria O'Brien, Constance Hiatt, Shannon Minter, Teresa S. Collett

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Maria O'Brien Hylton*: Welcome to this session on "Same Sex Marriage and its Implications for Employee Benefits." I'm Maria Hylton and I will introduce our speakers and moderate the program.

Our first speaker is Constance Hiatt, who is a partner with the Hanson Bridgett law firm here in San Francisco. She represents mostly large employers and large employee benefit plans, including the State of California's 401(k) and 457 plans as well as the University of California's benefits office. So, she has extensive experience in the employee benefits area and she came to us, to me really, through several …