Waiting for the Steve Jobs of law
Holman Jenkins today joins the many tributes to Steve Jobs: From the beginning, he saw the human possibility in the extraordinarily complex hardware and software engineering of digital devices. The Macintosh should work in a way that’s intuitive, that doesn’t require an owner’s manual. And today you only need to survey the blogosphere or friends ... Waiting for the Steve Jobs of law
Can insider trading combat accounting fraud?
Last year I suggested that regulators would better fight corporate fraud by letting those in the know trade on the information than through the complex whistleblowing rules like those in Dodd-Frank. Robert Wagner has similar thoughts. The article is Gordon Gekko to the Rescue?: Insider Trading as a Tool to Combat Accounting Fraud. Here’s the ... Can insider trading combat accounting fraud?
The effect of Van Gorkom and 102(b)(7)
Yaniv Grinstein and and Stefano Rossi have an interesting paper, Good Monitoring, Bad Monitoring, on the effect of corporate law, and specifically of the famous Delaware case Smith v. Van Gorkom and the Delaware legislature’s subsequent “fix” of that result. Here’s the abstract: We estimate the value of monitoring in publicly traded corporations by exploiting ... The effect of Van Gorkom and 102(b)(7)
UCLA’s Milken gift
The NYT discusses a controversy at UCLA (mainly, it seems, involving objections by Lynn Stout) to the $10 million gift it just announced from Lowell Milken, Michael’s brother. Lowell was accused many years ago in connection with his brother’s securities violations and escaped prosecution because of his brother’s plea deal. Steve Bainbridge comments in response ... UCLA’s Milken gift
The mirage of law firm profits
The WSJ reports that “[m]ore than half of the country’s top 50 law firms may have overstated a key measure of profitability” — profits per partner – – that AmLaw uses to rank law firms. This is according to an analysis by Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group, the leading lender to law firms. Citi ... The mirage of law firm profits
The job-creation potential of start-ups
A friend who is very active in startups and angel investing in southern California emailed me about whether I knew of research on the potential multiplier effects of a company on job formation. Examples that came to her mind were eBay and Mary Kay, which create many small businesses. I thought of Google as an ... The job-creation potential of start-ups
A response to LawProf and MacEwen
I wasn’t going to comment on LawProf’s attacks on his profession. But now that it has been endorsed by Bruce MacEwen, aka Adam Smith, Esq., an otherwise insightful commentator on the legal profession, I feel compelled to say something. In a nutshell, MacEwen endorses what he says are LawProf’s three primary points: that the rising ... A response to LawProf and MacEwen
Remedying Skilling
The WSJ comments on bills in Congress to “remedy” the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Skilling by explicitly criminalizing agent conduct that doesn’t involve bribery or kickbacks: The biggest objection to such laws is their injustice, but they also harm the economy by introducing legal uncertainty that deters or delays business investment. A Congress ... Remedying Skilling
Doctors and lawyers
I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about and discussing the problems with lawyer licensing and regulation and how it unnecessarily increases the costs and decreases the utility of legal services (e.g., here). I often wonder, and get asked, what about medicine? Like why are there not enough doctors or other medical practitioners? ... Doctors and lawyers
Another move to over-fiduciarize investing
The WSJ comments on a dumb proposal by the Employee Benefits Security Administration to broaden the definition of “fiduciary” to cover brokerage services with respect to retirement accounts. As the WSJ notes, For decades the finance industry has provided investors roughly two kinds of services: the “advisory” model, in which an investment professional makes trading ... Another move to over-fiduciarize investing
Uncorporate Kodak!
There are reports in the press that corporations are sitting on a huge cash pile — $1.2 trillion. Apple has over 70 billion. Today’s WSJ discusses Kodak (remember film?) which is burning through money it’s collected in patent litigation in a so far futile effort to compete in selling computer printers. Since the government can’t ... Uncorporate Kodak!
Chancellor Strine on LLC law
We got our first LLC opinion from Chancellor Strine in his new position atop the Delaware Chancery Court. It’s worth close attention in its own right as a case of first impression, and as an indication of the new Chancellor’s general approach to these cases. The case is Achaian, Inc. v. Leemon Family LLC. Francis ... Chancellor Strine on LLC law
