Sky Blog
To listen to the Chamber of Commerce, one would think that class actions are the most significant scourge on business ever conjured up by man. In brief after brief to the Supreme Court, the Chamber of Commerce and other business …
Roughly four and a half years after its first attempt, the U.S. Department of Labor today again proposed to redefine the term “fiduciary” as it applies in the investment advice context. The DOL withdrew the 2010 Proposed Rule following blistering …
Despite millions of dollars spent on enhancements, cybersecurity remains the area of risk management with the largest gap between threat and preparedness. As the frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks have increased significantly in recent years, counter measures have failed …
Let me begin by thanking the organizers for inviting me to participate in this important dialogue on the role of finance in society. The financial sector is vital to the economy. A well-functioning financial sector promotes job creation, innovation, and …
The negotiation of the “deal protection” package in a public company M&A transaction almost always involves the inevitable discussion as to the amount and percentage of the break-up fee. In general, the Delaware courts have upheld break-up fees within a …
Over the last few decades, how stocks are traded in the United States has been totally transformed. Gone are the dealers on NASDAQ and the specialists at the NYSE. Instead, a company’s stock can now be traded electronically on up …
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB” or “Bureau”) recently issued its final policy statement (the “Policy Statement”) enabling consumers to post on the CFPB’s web-based public consumer complaint database (the “Database”) complaints about consumer financial services in …
Thank you, David, for that kind introduction. I am very honored to address the Garrett Institute, one of the most important programs in the country for corporate and securities lawyers, and to be in David’s home territory of Northwestern Law …
On 26 March 2015, the United Kingdom Parliament passed into law the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (the “Act”).
The Act will bring about a number of fundamental changes to UK company law including, amongst others, …
The Greek crisis emerged as an offspring of the financial crisis of 2007, the institutional and fiscal problems of the Greek economy, the institutional structure of the Eurozone and, crucially, the failed political management in the last months that led …
On March 25, 2015, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (“CSBS”) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (“AARMR”) issued for a 90-day public comment period a proposed set of baseline prudential regulatory standards for nonbank mortgage servicers and …
The D.C. Circuit’s 2011 decision in Business Roundtable v. SEC , 647 F.3d 1144 (D.C. Cir. 2011) spawned a lot of debate regarding the value of cost-benefit analysis in financial regulation. On one side of the debate were those who …
On March 22, 2013, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (collectively, the “agencies”) published “Interagency Guidance on Leveraged Lending (78 …
In addition to change-of-control benefits (“golden parachutes”), executives often negotiate for personal side-payment at the same time that they are bargaining with an acquirer over the sale of their firm. Side-payments differ from golden parachutes in that they are negotiated …
The 2007-2009 financial crisis was a watershed event that shook the confidence of people around the globe in the stability of the international financial system. The crisis demonstrated a failure of market discipline and the government responses only exacerbated this …
Following the issuance of proposed regulations in June 2011, the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations on March 30, 2015 clarifying certain exceptions to the compensation deduction limitation imposed by Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 162(m) imposes …
Over the past year, the SEC and other regulatory agencies have initiated an increasing number of investigations into companies based on allegations of inadequate internal controls and/or a system for reporting those controls. (For more on internal controls and a …
The Big Data revolution has begun to have a transformative impact on commercial markets. Businesses are continually developing new ways to capitalize on the increased availability of analytic services and drastic reductions in the costs of data collection and storage. …
The emergence of alternative business entities[1] like benefit corporations, which facilitate pursuit of profit and purpose in the same endeavor, challenges the strict dichotomy between for-profit and non-profit corporations. Most alternative entities, including well-known brands like Warby Parker and …
On March 26, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB” or the “Bureau”) announced that it will be considering rules imposing significant structural limitations and other requirements on payday and similar loans: (1) short-term (45 days or less) loans …