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Full-Text Articles in Law
Ethics, Law Firms, And Legal Education, Milton C. Regan
Ethics, Law Firms, And Legal Education, Milton C. Regan
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
A rash of recent corporate scandals has once again put professional ethics in the spotlight. It's hard to pick up the Wall Street Journal each day and not read that authorities have launched a new investigation or that additional indictments are imminent. Stories of financial fraud and outright looting have galvanized the public and shaken the economy. What ethical lessons can we draw from these events? Two explanations seem especially prominent. The first is a story of individuals without an adequate moral compass. Some people's greed and ambition were unchecked by any internal ethical constraints. For such deviants, no amount …
Foreword: Revisiting Gilson And Kraakman’S Efficiency Story, Donald C. Langevoort
Foreword: Revisiting Gilson And Kraakman’S Efficiency Story, Donald C. Langevoort
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Gilson and Kraakman's ‘Mechanisms of Market Efficiency’ is part of the canon of modem corporate law scholarship, one of a handful of articles that has profoundly influenced the way we think about the field. It is also enigmatic, warranting a fresh look by those who think they know what it says from some long-ago reading or second-hand references by other authors.
Panel Presentation: Securities Regulation And Corporate Responsibility, Donald C. Langevoort
Panel Presentation: Securities Regulation And Corporate Responsibility, Donald C. Langevoort
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
What I want to do is talk about the big picture, as John suggested, and consider the likely spillover effects of Sarbanes-Oxley. I want to do this in a discretely administrative law-oriented way, taking two themes that were very visible and driving forces behind the legislation. The first, as Mary suggested in her opening remarks, is a question about federalism. It has been common for the last twenty years, at least, to trot out - as John just did - a distinction between federal and state spheres of competency. The SEC is on the disclosure side, while the substance of …
Shareholder Value And Auditor Independence, William W. Bratton
Shareholder Value And Auditor Independence, William W. Bratton
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
This Article questions the practice of framing problems concerning auditors' professional responsibility inside a principal-agent paradigm. If professional independence is to be achieved, auditors cannot be enmeshed in agency relationships with the shareholders of their audit clients. As agents, the auditors by definition become subject to the principal's control and cannot act independently. For the same reason, auditors' duties should be neither articulated in the framework of corporate law fiduciary duty, nor conceived relationally at all. These assertions follow from an inquiry into the operative notion of the shareholder-beneficiary. The Article unpacks the notion of the shareholder and tells a …