Securities Law Commons^™

The Eu Challenge To The Sec, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Five Decades Of Corporation Law - From Conglomeration To Equity Compensation, Richard A. Booth

Working Paper Series

This brief essay recounts developments in corporation law over the last fifty years. It begins with the rise of finance capitalism and the conglomerate corporation which was followed by the emergence of hostile takeovers in the late 1970s and 1980s. One of the key events in this saga was the February 1, 1983 decision by the Delaware Supreme Court in Weinberger v. UOP, Inc. that effectively permitted the at-will elimination of minority stockholders through cashout mergers. Takeovers were also facilitated by two major financial developments: (1) the growth of institutional investors coupled with the growing taste of diversified investors for …

Regulation By Exemption: The Changing Definition Of An Accredited Investor, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Securitization And Its Discontents: The Dynamics Of Financial Product Development, Kenneth C. Kettering

Cardozo Law Review

This paper takes as its point of departure the financing technique referred to as "securitization," a close cousin of secured lending that has grown to enormous size since its origin more than two decades ago. The paper pursues two themes. One is a critique of the legal foundations of securitization, which includes a perspective on aspects of fraudulent transfer law that are well established historically but have been neglected in recent decades. The other is exploration of the implications of this product growing so vast despite its dubious legal foundations. In that regard, the paper explores two points of legal …

The Paulson Report Reconsidered: How To Fix Securities Litigation By Converting Class Actions Into Issuer Actions, Richard A. Booth

Working Paper Series

This short essay considers the findings and recommendations of the Paulson Report relating to securities fraud class actions under the 1934 Act and Rule 10b-5. While the report exposes numerous problems with securities litigation in the United States, it understates the problems inherent in stock-drop actions. As a result, the report fails to propose an effective fix. As the report recognizes, diversified investors gain nothing from stock-drop actions: Because the corporation pays, holders effectively reimburse buyers and sellers keep their gains. In other words, the system suffers from circularity akin to a game of musical chairs in that stock-drop actions …

Risks And Realities Of Mezzanine Loans, Andrew R. Berman

Articles & Chapters

The last decade has witnessed an astounding increase in new real estate financing techniques, including mezzanine loans. These new financings are not directly secured by real estate and do not even directly involve land. In the real estate industry, mezzanine financing typically refers to a loan secured principally by the borrower's equity in other entities. Both economically and legally, the value of the mezzanine borrower's collateral derives solely from its indirect ownership of the underlying property.

This article provides a detailed description of the legal structure of mezzanine loans. In addition, this article evaluates the hazards, legal risks and uncertainties …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Predatory Structured Finance, Christopher L. Peterson

ExpressO

Predatory lending is a real, pervasive, and destructive problem as demonstrated by record settlements, jury awards, media exposes, and a large body of empirical scholarship. Currently the national debate over predatory mortgage lending is shifting to the controversial question of who should bear liability for predatory lending practices. In today’s subprime mortgage market, originators and brokers quickly assign home loans through a complex and opaque series of transactions involving as many as a dozen different strategically organized companies. Loans are typically transferred into large pools, and then income from those loans is “structured” to appeal to different types of investors. …

Explaining The Value Of Transactional Lawyering, Steven L. Schwarcz

ExpressO

This article attempts, empirically, to explain the value that lawyers add when acting as counsel to parties in business transactions. Contrary to existing scholarship, which is based mostly on theory, this article shows that transactional lawyers add value primarily by reducing regulatory costs, thereby challenging the reigning models of transactional lawyers as “transaction cost engineers” and “reputational intermediaries.” This new model not only helps inform contract theory but also reveals a profoundly different vision than existing models for the future of legal education and the profession.

Reassessing Damages In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Elizabeth C. Burch

ExpressO

No coherent doctrinal statement exists for calculating open-market damages for securities fraud class actions. Instead, courts have tried in vain to fashion common-law deceit and misrepresentation remedies to fit open-market fraud. The result is a relatively ineffective system with a hallmark feature: unpredictable damage awards. This poses a significant fraud deterrence problem from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint.

In 2005, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to clarify open-market damage principles and to facilitate earlier dismissal of cases without compensable economic losses. Instead, in Dura Pharmaceuticals v. Broudo, it further confused the damage issue by (1) perpetuating the …

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Regulation A: Small Businesses’ Search For “A Moderate Capital”, Rutheford B. Campbell Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Small businesses are an important part of our national economy, accounting for as much as 40% of our total economic activity and providing society with important services and products.

Small businesses face daunting economic, structural, and legal impediments when they attempt to acquire external capital. The absence of financial inter-mediation services means that they are almost always on their own to find investors. Their small capital needs mean that their relative offering costs are often sky high. Federal and state securities rules significantly exacerbate these economic and structural disadvantages by imposing onerous and unwarranted conditions on their search for external …

Taking The Stand: The Lessons Of The Three Men Who Took The Japanese American Internment To Court, Lorraine K. Bannai

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

What Makes Asset Securitization "Inefficient"?, Kenji Yamazaki

ExpressO

Despite the damage caused by the recent Enron scandal , the asset securitization market has been vibrant and has become a popular financing alternative . A number of academics emphasize its merits and suggest that it is a more favorable way of financing, and Congress’s proposal to make sales of asset in securitization immune from characterization as secured transactions under the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2001 (the “Reform Act”) almost materialized when the Enron scandal hit the scene. Conversely, there have been accusations that securitization is not a legitimate way of financing because, for example, it fosters fraudulent transactions.

Why …

Nasd Regulation Of Ipo Conflicts Of Interest - Does Gatekeeping Work?, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Article contributes to the debate on the efficacy of third party gatekeeping in regulating the capital markets, by presenting empirical evidence of the efficacy of one kind of gatekeeper, a qualified independent underwriter (QIU). Under NASD rules, when an investment bank participating in a securities offering has one of several enumerated conflicts of interest, the securities cannot be sold at a price higher than that recommended by a QIU. Examining 1,188 IPOs from 1997 through 2000 discloses a negative, statistically significant relationship between IPO initial returns and each of (i) the fact that participating NASD members (or their affiliates) …

Mutual Funds, Pension Funds, Hedge Funds And Stock Market Volatility: What Regulation By The Securities And Exchange Commission Is Appropriate?, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Correcting The Empirical Foundations Of Ipo-Pricing Regulation, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

Recent events are replete with stories of fraudulent or opportunistic behavior in the initial public offering (IPO) process - behavior that extended to the highest-reputation investment banks. Curiously, notwithstanding this evidence, recent financial economics literature asserts investment bank conflicts of interest certify IPO issuers. This Article develops new empirical evidence that casts doubt on this certification hypothesis by examining the pre-IPO price adjustment of IPOs involving qualified independent underwriters (QIUs), particularly IPOs in which more than ten percent of the net proceeds are being directed to participating investment banks (e.g., to repay a prior extension of credit). These offerings have …

Venture Capital On The Downside: Preferred Stock And Corporate Control, William W. Bratton

Michigan Law Review

When stock indices drop precipitously, when the startup companies fizzle out, and when it stops raining money on places like Wall Street and Silicon Valley, attention turns to downside contracting. Law and business lawyers, sitting in the back seat as mere facilitators on the upside, move up to the front and sometimes even take the wheel. The job is the same on both the upside and downside: to maximize the value of going concern assets. But what comes easily on the upside can be dirty work on the down, where assets need to be separated from dysfunctional teams of business …

Civil Liability And Remedies In Ohio Securities Transactions, Keith A. Rowley

Scholarly Works

The Ohio Securities Act (“OSA”) was enacted in 1913 to “guard [ ] investors against fraudulent enterprises, to prevent sales of securities based only on schemes purely speculative in character, and to protect the public from swindling peddlers of worthless stocks in mere paper corporations.” The OSA, which is administered by the Ohio Division of Securities (“Division”) and enforced by both the Division and private litigants, regulates the sale and purchase of securities in Ohio. The OSA and the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to it by the Division are designed both to encourage compliance by those who might otherwise …

Regulation Of Securities And Security Exchanges In The Age Of The Internet, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Adequacy Of Disclosure Of Restrictions On Flipping Ipo Securities, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the implications of this practice under the disclosure obligations imposed by federal securities laws and concludes that the current disclosure is materially misleading, particularly in light of the failure to disclose the selective application of the penalties. Moreover, the selective application of the penalties casts significant doubt on whether these offerings can be considered “fixed price” offerings, which would mean that cursory disclosure of the practice would not suffice.

Impact Of The Capital Markets On Real Estate Law And Practice, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 269 (1999), Michael H. Schill

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Value Of Public-Notice Filing Under Uniform Commercial Code Article 9: A Comparison With The German Legal System Of Securities In Personal Property, Jens Hausmann

LLM Theses and Essays

In contrast to the public-notice filing system under U.C.C. Article 9, the modern German law of securities in personal property lacks publicity of security interests. The German courts have developed a mesh of priority rules exhaustively described in this analysis. Despite the costs and risks arising under the formal filing system, the U.C.C. accomplishes a preferable balance of interests involved in secured transactions. It assures certainty to creditors about the priority of security interests in particular assets, whereas the German law comprehensively recognizes the debtor’s interest in the secrecy of the transaction and the need for external capital. Regarding the …

Dynamic Economic Analyses Of Selected Provisions Of Corporate Law: The Absolute Delegation Rule, Disclosure Of Intermediate Estimates And Ipo Pricing, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Article examines three separate aspects of the relationships between corporations and their securityholders from a dynamic economic perspective: (i) the feasibility of permitting shareholders to participate in the management of their corporations through the exercise of voting rights, (ii) Rule 3b-6, the safe harbor for projections (the Safe Harbor)8 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 1934 Act),9 and (iii) the extraordinary returns available from investing in initial public offerings (IPO's). Three particular dynamic aspects are implicated in these situations.

An Economic Analysis Of The Potential For Coercion In Consent Solicitations For Bonds, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

This Article examines why issuers frequently cannot present bondholders with an offer that draws on collective action problems to force the acceptance of the offer by the bondholders. The analysis is restricted to publicly offered bonds. For a number of reasons, privately placed debt presents fewer opportunities for coercion. A prior business relationship among various purchasers, which facilitates cooperation, may be more likely with respect to privately placed debt. Privately placed debt often has more significant protection for the bondholders than public debt with the same level of seniority

Otc Derivatives & Systemic Risk: Innovative Finance Or The Dance Into The Abyss?, Adam P. Waldman

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bespeaks Caution Doctrine: Revisiting The Application Of Federal Securities Law To Opinions And Estimates, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

Disclosure of estimates and opinions, which are often referred to as ‘soft information,‘ has presented a number of difficult issues to courts, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and companies issuing offering materials or required to file periodic reports with the SEC. Although this type of information often consists of projections, historical financial statements also include this type of information to varying degrees. For example, a bank's statement of financial position requires specification of loan loss reserves and is therefore dependent on an assessment of future events (the timing and extent of repayment). Similarly, determination of the timing of a …

Implications Of The Stakeholder Model, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sec Regulation Of Multijurisdictional Offerings, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.