Securities Law Commons^™

The Demythification Of The Board Of Directors, J. Robert Brown Jr.

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In the debate over corporate governance, the relationship between shareholders and the directors rests at the epicenter. Management has a legal obligation to act in the best interests of shareholders but sometimes does not. Shareholders have an interest in overseeing the actions of management but often cannot.

Reforms designed to address these issues frequently take the form of structural changes to the board. These reforms have not always generated the anticipated results. This may occur in part because of an emphasis on structural reform unaccompanied by necessary changes in process. It may also occur, however, because of misconceptions about board …

Congressional Arbitrage At The Executive's Expense: The Speech Or Debate Clause And The Unenforceable Stock Act, Anna Fodor

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Better Bounty Hunting: How The Sec's New Whistleblower Program Changes The Securities Fraud Class Action Debate, Amanda M. Rose

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Feeling Insecure—A State View Of Whether Investors In Municipal General Obligation Bonds Have A Mere Promise To Pay Or A Binding Obligation, Randle B. Pollard

Scholarly Articles

The City of Detroit's filing for municipal bankruptcy in July, 2013, has added to a continuing controversy of whether general obligation bondholders have a secured lien. The City of Detroit claimed its general obligation bondholders did not have a fully secured lien because the law of the state of Michigan did not create a statutory lien. Without the creation of a lien by state law, during the insolvency or bankruptcy of municipalities, general obligation bondholders will potentially have a mere promise to pay versus a binding obligation to pay, and therefore, will not have a secured lien. Treating otherwise secured …

Rethinking Insider Trading Regulation, Caroline Bradley

Articles

No abstract provided.

Political Uncertainty And The Market For Ipos, Jay B. Kesten, Murat C. Mungan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Disaggregated Classes, Benjamin P. Edwards

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Class-Action Tolling, Federal Common Law, And Securities Statutes Of Repose: A Recommendation, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

This Essay focuses on a narrow, but potentially outcome determinative, question: Does the filing of a securities class action toll the three-year outer time limit applicable to claims under sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act and the five-year outer time limit applicable to claims under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, such that potential class members-after a decision on class certification-can assert an individual federal action, even if those outer time limits would have elapsed absent tolling? There is currently a circuit split on this issue, with the Tenth Circuit answering "yes" and the Second Circuit answering …

Global Systemic Risk And International Regulatory Coordination: Squaring Sovereignty And Financial Stability, Federico Lupo-Pasini, Ross P. Buckley

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

It's Not Just About The Money: A Comparative Analysis Of The Regulatory Status Of Bitcoin Under Various Domestic Securities Laws, Vesna Harasic

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Closed-End Fund Ipo Considerations, Benjamin P. Edwards

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Happened To The American Dream - An Analysis Of The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act And Its Effect On Home Ownership., Nathan Torok, Mark Torok

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.

Correcting Corporate Benefit: How To Fix Shareholder Litigation By Shifting The Doctrine On Fees, Sean J. Griffith

Faculty Scholarship

The current controversy in corporate law concerns whether firms can discourage litigation by shifting its cost to shareholders. But corporate law courts have long engaged in fee-shifting—from shareholder plaintiffs to the corporation—under the “corporate benefit” doctrine. This Article examines fee-shifting in share-holder litigation, arguing that current practices are unsound from the perspective of both doctrine and public policy. Unfortunately, the fee-shifting bylaws recently enacted in response to the problem of excessive shareholder litigation fare no better. The Article therefore offers a different approach to fee-shifting, articulating three specific reforms of the corporate benefit doctrine to quell the current crisis in …

Justice Scalia's Hat Trick And The Supreme Court's Flawed Understanding Of Twenty-First Century Arbitration, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In this article, I report on the results of my close examination of more than two dozen opinions the Court has handed down interpreting the FAA--arising primarily from commercial, consumer, employment, or securities disputes--since the beginning of the twenty-first century only fifteen years ago.19 I focus on cases in which the Court was asked to decide a question of arbitrability--whether a claim is arbitrable or whether an agreement to arbitrate is enforceable under FAA section 2. I have concluded that these decisions are built on a narrative of an arbitration process that no longer exists, although it may have existed …

Materiality And A Theory Of Legal Circularity, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

This Article argues that the materiality doctrine, which lies at the heart of securities fraud, has the potential to operate as a self-fulfilling prophecy. This Article labels this phenomenon "legal circularity." In order to place the potential legal circularity of materiality in context among the various other legal doctrines that share this potential, this Article proposes a two part Theory of Legal Circularity. First, this Article proposes the following Legal Circularity Test to identify potentially circular doctrines: A legal doctrine is potentially circular if: (1) the legal doctrine incorporates the behavior or attitude of a population or person, either hypothetical …

Professor Alan R. Bromberg And The Scholarly Role Of The Treatise, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

No abstract provided.

False Statements Of Belief As Securities Fraud, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Articles

No abstract provided.

Anticipating A Sea Change For Insider Trading Law: From Trading Plan Crisis To Rational Reform, John P. Anderson

Utah Law Review

The Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to take action in the face of compelling evidence that corporate insiders are availing themselves of rule-sanctioned Trading Plans to beat the market. These Trading Plans allow insiders to trade while aware of material nonpublic information. Since the market advantage insiders have enjoyed from Plan trading can be traced to loopholes in the current regulatory scheme, increased enforcement of the existing rules cannot address the issue. But, simply tweaking the existing rule structure to close these loopholes would not work either. This is because the SEC adopted the current rule as a part …

The Costs Of Mandatory Cost-Benefit Analysis In Sec Rulemaking, Donna M. Nagy

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Cost-benefit analysis can be a valuable tool when deployed at the Securities and Exchange Commission's discretion to improve its rulemaking process and the overall quality of SEC rules. However, when a cost-benefit analysis obligation is imposed externally whether from an explicit statutory command or from a de facto requirement enforced through judicial review-the costs of that mandatory cost-benefit analysis can be quite substantial. This Article identifies and explores the qualitative costs that that have already been incurred, and are bound to continue, if the adequacy of the SEC's cost-benefit analysis remains subject to extensive judicial scrutiny. These costs will only …

Piercing The Fiduciary Veil, Colin P. Marks

Faculty Works

Limited partnerships (LPs) and limited liability companies (LLCs) permit formation with a unique management structure in that these entities may be managed by another limited liability entity, such as a corporation. Thus, the true managers are those individuals who manage the manager. It is well settled that the managing entity, such as a corporate general partner, owes default fiduciary duties, but what of these second-tier managers? Technically, it is the managing entity that owes the duties, not the managing entity's owners, officers, and directors, yet courts have struggled with strict adherence to this separation when it would seem inequitable to …