Law Commons^™

Understanding University Fee Litigation: A Few Lessons About The Perils Of Imprudence For Higher Ed Plan Sponsors, Maria O'Brien, Calvin Utter

Faculty Scholarship

Beginning in August 2016, a series of class action lawsuits were filed on behalf of participants and beneficiaries of 403(b) employee retirement plans sponsored by major American colleges and universities. These plans are regulated by the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), which sets minimum standards to protect the participants and beneficiaries of voluntarily established retirement and health plans. The allegations in the several lawsuits have centered primarily around breaches of fiduciary duties by those charged with administering the plan.

These cases are all class action lawsuits brought on behalf of the participants and beneficiaries of the plans in …

Rise Of The Digital Regulator, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

The administrative state is leveraging algorithms to influence individuals’ private decisions. Agencies have begun to write rules to shape for-profit websites such as Expedia and have launched their own online tools such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage calculator. These digital intermediaries aim to guide people toward better schools, healthier food, and more savings. But enthusiasm for this regulatory paradigm rests on two questionable assumptions. First, digital intermediaries effectively police consumer markets. Second, they require minimal government involvement. Instead, some for-profit online advisers such as travel websites have become what many mortgage brokers were before the 2008 financial crisis. …

Incorporating Legal Claims, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in commercial litigation funding. Whereas the judicial, legislative, and scholarly treatment of litigation finance has regarded litigation finance first and foremost as a form of champerty and sought to regulate it through rules of legal professional responsibility (hereinafter, the "legal ethics paradigm"), this Article suggests that the problems created by litigation finance are all facets of the classic problems created by "the separation of ownership and control" that have been a focus of business law since the advent of the corporate form. Therefore, an "incorporation paradigm," offered here, is more appropriate. "Incorporating …

How Much Is That Lawsuit In The Window; Pricing Legal Claims, Maya Steinitz

Faculty Scholarship

This article poses the question: How should parties to litigation finance agreements – third party funding or contingency fees – deal with the inherent difficulty in pricing legal claims? It answers that a practical solution would be to use staged funding. Staged funding side-step the impossibility of accurately pricing litigation ex ante by allowing re-pricing and exit that are pegged to information disclosure. Done right, staging allows all parties to minimize the effects of uncertainty, better price their bargain, optimize the distribution of the proceeds of litigation between its different investors – far beyond practices common today. Staged funding also …

Symposium: Advances In Biomaterials And Devices, And Their Financing, Michael S. Baram, Ronald A. Cass, Steven Bauer, Joyce Wong, Martin Yarmush, Joshua Tolkoff, Rufus King

Faculty Scholarship

My name is Professor Michael Baram and I direct the Center for Law and Technology here at the law school. Today's meeting is the third annual Technology Law Symposium to be held here, sponsored by the high technology law firm of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP and the Center for Law and Technology.

Our meeting today is focused on an exciting area of research and product development. This area involves the use of conventional as well as new genetically engineered biomaterials in new medical device configurations for implantation and with the purpose of restoring bodily functions, regenerating tissue, bone, cartilage, …

Bank Powers To Sell Annuities, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

The conflict over turf between the banking industry and the insurance agents has heated up again. In the 1993 case Variable Annuity Life Ins. Co. v. Clarke, ¹ the Fifth Circuit held banks have no power to sell fixed annuities issued by insurance companies in cities with more than 5,000 inhabitants. On June 6, 1994, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the decision. ³ Both the Clinton Administration and members of Congress are considering steps toward resolving this issue. Concerned that the flight of high-quality borrowers from the banking system has rendered bank lending increasingly risky, the Comptroller of …