Business Organizations Law Commons^™

(Un)Corporate Crypto-Governance, Carla L. Reyes

Fordham Law Review

Public blockchain protocols face a serious governance crisis. Thus far, blockchain protocols have followed the path of early internet governance. If the architects of blockchain protocols are not careful, they may suffer a similar fate—increased governmental control, greater centralization, and decreased privacy. As blockchain architects begin to consider better governance structures, there is a legal movement underway to impose a fiduciary framework on open-source software developers. If the movement succeeds, the consequences for open-source software development could be dire. If arbitrarily imposed on blockchain communities without consideration of variances among communities or the reality of how such communities operate, the …

The Case For Accountability & Transparency: How Corporate Asset Forfeiture Creates A Conflict Of Interest, Tiffany J. Klinger

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

Asset forfeiture is a tool used by law enforcement to seize property or profits related to criminal activity. Due to the public's growing distain of asset forfeiture, congressional and state reform has attempted to curtail the use of civil asset forfeiture over the past twenty years. However, little attention has been given where asset forfeiture is used against corporations. This Note sheds light as to how asset forfeiture is used against the organizational defendant and makes the following observations: First, asset forfeiture is a powerful tool in corporate criminal proceedings; however, forfeiture lacks the procedural restraints that are placed on …

Reassessing Self-Dealing: Between No Conflict And Fairness, Andrew F. Tuch

Fordham Law Review

Scholars have long disagreed on which of two rules is more effective when a fiduciary engages in self-dealing. Some defend the “strict” no-conflict rule, which categorically bans self-dealing. Others prefer the “flexible” and “pragmatic” fairness rule, which allows self-dealing if it is fair to beneficiaries. The centrality of this debate cannot be overstated: corporate law as a field is fundamentally concerned with self-dealing by fiduciaries. Yet a lack of firm data means that this debate has dragged on for decades, with no end in sight. This Article makes a simple but powerful point: the entire debate is somewhat misguided because, …

Breaking Up The Focus On Relationships For Nonpecuniary Insider Trading Personal Benefits, Bradley Larkin

Fordham Law Review

In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted the “personal benefit” requirement as an objective test for insider trading to help determine when confidential information is tipped for an improper purpose. Under this test, a tipper acts improperly by receiving a personal benefit for sharing confidential, nonpublic information, even if the tipper does not trade using the information. For instance, when a tipper leaks confidential information to a trading friend or relative, the tipper benefits personally because this amounts to trading on the confidential information and then gifting the profits. The personal benefit requirement is applied differently among the circuits, however, …

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 …

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 …

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, …

Soft And Hard Strategies: The Role Of Business In The Crafting Of International Commercial Law, Susan Block-Lieb

Faculty Scholarship

Part I returns to the classic definition of hard international law initially put forward by Kenneth Abbott and Duncan Snidal and related IR scholars and analyzes existing commercial law treaties in light of this definition. It concludes that virtually none of these commercial law treaties constitute “hard” international law because nearly all commercial law treaties rely on national courts for enforcement. But Abbott and Snidal’s focus on the extent to which international law is legalized—and especially the extent to which it is enforced by international actors—may matter less with commercial than other more public international lawmaking. This is because the …

Mind The Gap(S): Solutions For Defining Tipper-Tippee Liability And The Personal Benefit Test Post-Salman V. United States, Matthew Williams

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The Supreme Court’s decision in Salman v. United States reaffirmed (and indeed, clarified) the central holding of Dirks v. SEC that no additional pecuniary or reputational gain is needed when an insider gives information to a “trading relative or friend.” While this was considered a win for prosecutors, the Court chose to abstain from considering more complex questions regarding tipper-tippee liability. Namely, the Court provided no guidance on what constitutes a “friend” or “trading relative” nor how a tippee “should know” whether information was improperly disclosed. Without any clear standards, prosecutors and courts have wide discretion to determine whether these …

What Would We Do Without Them: Whistleblowers In The Era Of Sarbanes-Oxley And Dodd-Frank, Sean Griffith, Jane A. Norberg, Ian Engoron, Alice Brightsky, Tracey Mcneil, Jennifer M. Pacella, Judith Weinstock, Jason Zuckerman

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

From Value Protection To Value Creation: Rethinking Corporate Governance Standards For Firm Innovation, Roger M. Barker, Iris H-Y Chiu

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

A company’s pro-innovation needs are often met by the exploitation of its resources, widely defined. The resource-based theory of the firm provides immense empirical insights into how a firm’s corporate governance factors can contribute to promoting innovation. However, these implications may conflict with the prevailing standards of corporate governance imposed on many securities markets for listed companies, which have developed based on theoretical models supporting a shareholder-centered and agency-based theory of the firm. Although prevailing corporate governance standards can to an extent support firm innovation, tensions are created in some circumstances where companies pit their corporate governance compliance against resource-based …

The Seventeenth Annual Albert A. Destefano Lecture On Corporate, Securities & Financial Law At The Fordham Corporate Law Center, Caroline M. Gentile, The Honorable Karen L. Valihura

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Reviving Reliance, Ann M. Lipton

Fordham Law Review

This Article explores the misalignment between the disclosure requirements of the federal securities laws and the private causes of action available to investors to enforce those requirements. Historically, federally mandated disclosures were designed to allow investors to set an appropriate price for publicly traded securities. Today’s disclosures, however, also enable stockholders to participate in corporate governance and act as a check on managerial misbehavior. To enforce these requirements, investors’ chief option is a claim under the general antifraud statute, section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. But courts are deeply suspicious of investors’ attempts to use the Act …

Thinking Outside The Box: Reforming Commercial Discrimination Doctrine To Combat The Negative Consequences Of Ban-The-Box Legislation, Nina Kucharczyk

Fordham Law Review

This Note suggests a new approach to address the unintended consequences of ban-the-box legislation. The solution to combat unconscious discrimination during the hiring process is not to eliminate ban- the-box laws entirely; instead, lawmakers must modernize and strengthen Commercial discrimination doctrine to empower racial minorities who suspect discrimination and to ensure employers are critically analyzing their hiring processes.

Paying Too Dearly For A Whistle: Properly Protecting Internal Whistleblowers, Leonardo Labriola

Fordham Law Review

In light of substantial disagreement among the circuits on which types of whistleblowers Dodd-Frank intends to protect, and newly proposed legislation which suggests a solution, this Note inspects Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower protections in an effort to better explain which types of Business Organizations whistleblowers should and should not be protected. This Note briefly outlines the United States’s repeated history of increased regulation following financial crises, culminating in the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts. It then describes the goals that motivated these acts and how whistleblowers play an outsized role in accomplishing those goals. It also examines the critical statute for Business Organizations …

Political Insider Trading, Michael R. Siebecker

Fordham Law Review

A fiduciary breach due to secret use of Business Organizations assets for personal gain marks the essential concern in both the insider trading realm and in the context of Business Organizations political spending. Therefore, adopting a similar common law fiduciary rule that Business Organizations managers must disclose the amount and target of political expenditures or refrain from engaging in political activity does not seem like much of an intellectual leap. Not only would such a common law disclosure duty fit neatly within existing Business Organizations governance principles, but the compelled transparency would not offend corporations’ First Amendment rights. In the …

(Beyond) Family Ties: Remote Tippees In A Post-Salman Era, Austin J. Green

Fordham Law Review

In Salman v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Dirks v. SEC, holding that a personal benefit may be inferred where an insider discloses material nonpublic information to a “trading relative or friend.” While the decision was viewed as a win for prosecutors, the Court’s limited holding did little to address issues pertaining to more complex tipping chains, such as those raised by the Second Circuit’s decision in United States v. Newman two years prior. Particularly, a remote tippee cannot always determine whether material nonpublic information was improperly disclosed at the time of receipt. Such a remote …

The Right Deed For The Wrong Reason: A Critical Examination Of Regulation A+ And Its Rationales, Louis Anthony Steiner

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The recent enactment of Regulation A+ makes it possible for the first time for companies to conduct retail equity crowdfunding (i.e., equity crowdfunding campaigns involving general solicitation of unaccredited investors). On its surface, Regulation A+ seems poised to provide dual benefits to start-ups by both democratizing access to capital and easing the transition into public company status. However, Regulation A+ is largely a solution in search of a problem. There is little empirical evidence of an equity gap for early stage companies, nor is there evidence that the recent dip in small-company IPOs has anything to do with regulatory burdens. …

Revitalizing Sec Rule 14a-8’S Ordinary Business Exclusion: Preventing Shareholder Micromanagement By Proposal, Stephen M. Bainbridge

Fordham Law Review

Who decides what products a company should sell, what prices it should charge, and so on? Is it the board of directors, the top management team, or the shareholders? In large corporations, of course, the answer is the top management team operating under the supervision of the board. As for the shareholders, they traditionally have had no role in these sort of operational decisions. In recent years, however, shareholders have increasingly used SEC Exchange Act Rule 14a-8 (the so-called “Shareholder Proposal Rule”) to not just manage but even micromanage corporate decisions. The Rule permits a qualifying shareholder of a public …

Up The Chute, Down The Ladder: Shifting Priorities Through Structured Dismissals In Bankruptcy, Bethany K. Smith

Fordham Law Review

In a structured dismissal of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, a bankruptcy court approves case dismissal alongside a stakeholder agreement as to the manner in which the estate is to be dealt with once the case has been dismissed. Such orders are controversial in that they are not explicitly authorized through the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (“the Code”) and are especially controversial where the accompanying agreement seeks to distribute estate property in contravention of the priority scheme laid out in § 507 of the Code. Where the agreement violates this so-called waterfall payment method, bankruptcy courts are faced with difficult questions: …

Keeping Shareholder Activism Alive: A Comparative Approach To Outlawing Dead Hand Proxy Puts In Delaware, Danielle A. Rapaccioli

Fordham Law Review

Current trends in shareholder activism have brought to light the competing interests of management and stockholders. With a rise in shareholder activism, firms are continuing to include change in control provisions, known as proxy puts, in their debt agreements to counter activist success. Recent litigation regarding the use of these provisions has created a debate as to whether these provisions are valid under Delaware law. Moreover, companies and lending institutions have morphed these provisions into a more restrictive form, known as “dead hand proxy puts.” The controversy analyzed in this Note arises out of the use of dead hand proxy …

The Conscious Parallelism Of Wolf Packs: Applying The Antitrust Conspiracy Framework To Section 13(D) Activist Group Formation, William R. Tevlin

Fordham Law Review

Section 13(d) of the Williams Act requires all persons and groups that acquire 5 percent or more of an issuer’s outstanding stock to disclose their holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Whether a group is formed under section 13(d) often is unclear. The legal precedent is ambiguous; courts give more weight to certain forms of circumstantial evidence than others without explaining why. With the substantial increase of hedge fund activism—in particular, the wolf pack tactic—further clarity or uniformity is necessary. A “wolf pack” is a loose association of hedge funds that employs parallel activist strategies toward a target corporation …

Making Assignments For The Benefit Of Creditors As Easy As A-B-C, Carly Landon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Professionalism" As Pathology: The Aba's Latest Pollicy Debate On Nonlawyer Ownership Of Law Practice Entities, Ted Schneyer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Skilling Reconsidered: The Legislative-Judicial Dynamic, Honest Services, Fraud, And The Ill-Conceived "Clean Up Government Act", J. Kelly Strader

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Examining White Collar Crime With Trifocals, Ellen S. Podgor

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Skilling: More Blind Monks Examining The Elephant, Julie Rose O'Sullivan

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.