Showing archive for: “Legal Profession & Scholarship”
New Yorker captions and the law
For years I’ve been trying to win the New Yorker caption contest. After repeated failure I’ve finally decided my problem is that I’m not a typical New Yorker reader. Which means that I read the Wall Street Journal. So now the WSJ has a story (who will read it?) on other people who have had ... New Yorker captions and the law
Dodd-Frank and law’s information revolution
In Law’s Information Revolution, Kobayashi and I note that: a Davis, Polk & Wardwell LLP report on Dodd-Frank became a main way to access materials relating to this long and complex law. The firms hope to use these materials to generate business. Law firms might also sell subscriptions to more sophisticated materials or offer them ... Dodd-Frank and law’s information revolution
2011 Illinois Corporate Colloquium: Shadab on credit risk transfer
The 2011 Illinois Corporate Colloquium got off to a good start with Houman Shadab presenting his paper, The Good, the Bad, and the Savvy: Credit Risk Transfer Governance. Here’s the abstract: Goldman Sachs and AIG on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis were bound together through a web of credit risk transfer (CRT) contracts ... 2011 Illinois Corporate Colloquium: Shadab on credit risk transfer
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
Epstein, Kieff & Spulber Eviscerate the FTC’s Proposal on Regulating SSOs
In a thorough and convincing paper, “The FTC’s Proposal for Regulating IP through SSOs Would Replace Private Coordination with Government Hold-Up,” Richard Epstein, Scott Kieff and Dan Spulber assess and then decimate the FTC’s proposal on patent notice and remedies, “The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition.” Note Epstein, Kieff and ... Epstein, Kieff & Spulber Eviscerate the FTC’s Proposal on Regulating SSOs
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
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
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
Tomorrow: Teleforum on lawyer licensing
Tomorrow, August 9, 1:00 EDT, I’ll be on the phone discussing “Grading the Bar Exam: Compulsory Licensing for Lawyers.” Sponsored by the Federalist Society Professional Responsibility and Legal Education Practice Group. To participate dial in to 1-888-752-3232. No prior registration necessary. After opening remarks, I’ll take questions from callers. Hear you there!
Government spending, cargo cults, and rules for growth
When the debate about the debt ceiling and spending gets past name-calling to real issues, it’s about the best path to growth and jobs. An example of the pro-spending view is James Surowiecki in the current New Yorker: [T]he spending cuts * * * will likely hit precisely the kind of public spending—on infrastructure, basic ... Government spending, cargo cults, and rules for growth
Comparative uncorporate law
Don Clarke has written a nice piece on “the past and future of comparative corporate governance.” Here’s part of the abstract: Recent years have seen the rise of comparative corporate governance (CCG) as an increasingly mainstream approach within the world of corporate governance studies. This is a function partly of an increasing international orientation on ... Comparative uncorporate law
