The Facebook deal moves offshore
A couple of weeks ago I noted regarding the “Sachsbook” deal: So it seems the increased costs of being public have helped exclude ordinary people from the ability to own the stars of the future. Back in the 1980s, you could just call your broker and get rich off of the Microsoft IPO. Now you ... The Facebook deal moves offshore
Lawsuit loans
Last week I discussed my new paper with Kobayashi, Law’s Information Revolution, which discusses how law’s traditional business of lawyers conveying legal expertise via advice to individual clients “is being challenged by the sale of legal information to impersonal product and capital markets.” Today’s NYT discusses an aspect of this market — advancing money to ... Lawsuit loans
The real Facebook story
I originally wrote about “The Social Network” before having seen it, led by a Gordon Crovitz WSJ story quoting a Larry Lessig TNR review into thinking that Zuckerberg was the villain, and concluding that this was just another movie, like so many others I’ve discussed, in which Hollywood’s view of business is shaped by the ... The real Facebook story
Exit and voice in Illinois
Illinois politicians, many of whom had already been voted out of office, as their last act in the old session yesterday raised the state’s individual and corporate taxes 67% and 45% to try to bail Illinois out of the results of their fiscal profligacy. Remember that the voters who elected this gang were the same ones ... Exit and voice in Illinois
Jurisdictional competition as a rule for growth
I’ve just posted on SSRN a recent paper with Henry Butler, Legal Process and the Discovery of Better Policies for Fostering Innovation and Growth, forthcoming as a chapter in KAUFFMAN TASK FORCE FOR LAW, INNOVATION AND GROWTH, Rules for Growth (2011). Here’s the abstract: Our chapter concerns how legal process can lead to efficient ... Jurisdictional competition as a rule for growth
Agents Prosecuting Agents
I’ve been blogging over the years quite a bit about a problem I call “criminalizing agency costs,” which is a piece of the general problem of over-criminalization. In fact, this problem was a big reason for my getting started in blogging almost seven years ago. As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I presented ... Agents Prosecuting Agents
Fencing Fiduciary Duties
Several years ago I wrote up my theory of fiduciary duties in an inaptly titled paper, Are Partners Fiduciaries? My basic point was that fiduciary duties are and should be narrowly applied, as befits a strict standard that transcends general norms of commercial behavior. Since then I’ve been trying to get across the notion that, ... Fencing Fiduciary Duties
The First Amendment and Corporate Governance
?I have spent some time over the last year discussing the Supreme Court’s big corporate speech case, Citizens United — at Stanford and Georgia State, and in an archive full of Ideoblog posts. Now my paper on the case, The First Amendment and Corporate Governance, is finally available on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: The Supreme ... The First Amendment and Corporate Governance
Law’s Information Revolution
For several months I’ve been threatening to unleash a new article that discusses the future of the law business, following the Death of Big Law. See my earlier posts on “law entrepreneurs” and “owning the law.” The day has at last arrived. The article is now called “Law’s Information Revolution,” co-authored by Bruce Kobayashi, and ... Law’s Information Revolution
Evidence of the SOX effect on IPOs
Last week I noted that Facebook’s big private sale to Goldman was a symptom of how higher disclosure costs have helped make private firms reluctant to take the once-expected step of going public: “[I]t seems the increased costs of being public have helped exclude ordinary people from the ability to own the stars of the ... Evidence of the SOX effect on IPOs
What happened to IPOs?
So Facebook finally had its public offering. But it didn’t look like your father’s IPO. Instead, Facebook sold $500 million in stock to one person. The stock will be held by a single special purpose vehicle so Facebook avoids going over the 500-investor-limit for avoiding the disclosure obligations of a public company. Wealthy investors get to ... What happened to IPOs?
E-marriage at the AALS
I’ll be speaking at the AALS on a “hot topic” devoted to this interesting subject, Yosemite C, ballroom level at the Hilton, 4-5:45 January 7. Here’s a brief excerpt from a longer description of the program: The panel explores the likelihood that technology, modern-day mobility, and patterns in affiliation will produce increasing numbers of marriage ... E-marriage at the AALS
