A committee of law professors that I co-chair with Lucian Bebchuk has petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission  to develop rules requiring public companies to disclose the use of shareholder money on politics. The petition has drawn over 500,000 supportive comments, more than any rulemaking proposal in the SEC’s history, including support from institutional investors and Members of Congress  along with a sitting Commissioner. Although the SEC confirmed last year that it was considering the proposal and added disclosure of political spending to its regulatory agenda, the Commission has not yet announced whether it will require public companies to tell investors whether and how their money is being spent on politics. This afternoon, I will join U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Elizabeth Warren, along with John Coates of Harvard Law School, for a briefing on why the SEC should act immediately to develop rules requiring disclosure of corporate spending on politics. Today I will explain why the case for such rules is strong—and why the arguments that have apparently led the SEC to hesitate about making rules in this area provide no basis for continuing to allow public companies to spend shareholder money on politics in the dark.

Chapter 11 creates a system of collective corporate governance that allows stakeholders that are usually passive – such as shareholders or creditors like lenders and bondholders – to play a day-to-day role in overseeing management and monitoring the business.  In …

Bankruptcy cases are as different as the types of businesses that fail, but all share an element of crisis.  The weeks and days that precede a bankruptcy filing are often chaotic.  The first days after filing may be even worse, …