Click to see the beacon journal online
Homes   Jobs   Cars   Shopping
Akron Law Café -- Community Blog

From the category archives:

Business

Who Owns Corporations and Should They Pay For Access?

August 27, 2009

Question 1:  Who are the owners of the typical U.S. publicly traded corporation?
(a)  The shareholders.
(b)  The board of directors.
(c)  The management (CEO, CFO, etc.).
Question 2:  If the owners of the corporation want to put a slate of nominees for the board of directors on the corporation's annual proxy statement, who should bear the cost?
(a)  The [...]

Read the full article →

Just because you're paranoid . . . .

August 20, 2009

Fun weekly "coincidence":
First, Frank Rich (HT: Kristina Melomed) opines that:
What the Great Recession has crystallized is a larger syndrome that Obama tapped into during the campaign.  It’s the sinking sensation that the American game is rigged — that, as the president typically put it a month after his inauguration, the system is in hock to [...]

Read the full article →

Memorable Subprime Fraud Quotes

July 30, 2009

The Wall Street Journal reports today that:
A Senate panel has subpoenaed financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, seeking evidence of fraud in last year's mortgage-market meltdown, according to people familiar with the situation.  The congressional investigation appears to focus on whether internal communications, such as email, show bankers had private [...]

Read the full article →

Goldman Sachs and the Problem of Structural Bias

July 16, 2009

I'm teaching Corporations this summer and we recently discussed how different jurisdictions deal with the problem of structural bias when it comes to allowing special litigation committees to dismiss derivative actions.  To give some brief background, we start with the proposition that the decision of whether or not to pursue a legal claim held by [...]

Read the full article →

Teaching Transactional Law Skills in Law School: Is More Really Better?

July 9, 2009

When I attended the AALS's midyear meeting focusing on business law this past June, I was struck by Michael Woronoff's response to the question of whether law schools were teaching students adequate transactional skills.  The reason his remarks caught my attention was because it was the first time I had heard someone seriously challenge the [...]

Read the full article →

Star Powered Director Primacy

July 2, 2009

Delaware General Corporation Law Section 141 tells us that the "business and affairs of every corporation organized under this chapter shall be managed by or under the direction of a board of directors."  Given the complexity of managing or overseeing the business and affairs of modern corporations, an outsider may be forgiven for being surprised [...]

Read the full article →

The President's Financial Regulatory Reform Proposals: Too Much, Too Little, or Too Soon to Tell?

June 18, 2009

Yesterday, the Obama administration unveiled its most recent proposals for financial regulatory reform, calling for "A New Foundation."  The proposals break down into five key objectives: (1) "Promote robust supervision and regulation of financial firms," including creation of a new "Financial Services Oversight Council of financial regulators to identify emerging systemic risks and improve interagency [...]

Read the full article →

The Curious Prevalence of Part-Time, Inexperienced Corporate Directors

June 12, 2009

Section 141(a) of the the Delaware General Corporation Law provides that: "The business and affairs of every corporation organized under this chapter shall be managed by or under the direction of a board of directors . . . ."  (The reason we corporate law scholars generally cite to Delaware law is that the vast majority [...]

Read the full article →

Killing People for Profit and Other Corporate Shenanigans

May 28, 2009

This past Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals "ruled that the tobacco industry engaged in a half-century-long campaign to deceive Americans about the health hazards of smoking."  This reminded me of Ford's cost-benefit analysis of safety improvements versus a total of 360 preventable burn deaths and serious burn injuries.  It also made me think [...]

Read the full article →

Natural Rights and Corporate Law

May 21, 2009

Over at the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog, Francis Pileggi has this to say about corporate law and natural rights:
[M]any of the most important rights in the U.S. Constitution, such as those in the First and Second Amendment, were considered by the Founders to be inherent human rights that were (are) based on "natural [...]

Read the full article →

Can Virtuous Capitalists Survive?

May 14, 2009

Over at The Huffington Post, Professor Ronald Colombo opines that what is at the root of our current financial crisis is "a national crisis of character."  He argues that the Great Crash of 1929 was seemingly the result of "the moral laxity of the cabaret and the bedroom . . . extend[ing] to a certain [...]

Read the full article →

Faith and Corporate Law: What Would Buddha Do?

May 7, 2009

Over at the Glom they are conducting a very interesting online symposium entitled:  "Exploring the Connection between Religious Faith and Corporate Law".  The discussion, which is still ongoing, raises a number of fascinating issues.  I will summarize a couple of them here, along with a few of my own comments and questions.

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

 

© The Akron Beacon Journal • 44 E. Exchange Street, Akron, Ohio 44308

Powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).