Columbia Law School
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Corporate Governance
Adoption of Rules Regarding Municipal Advisor Registration
Commissioner Kara M. Stein gave the following statement on September 18, 2013 at an SEC open meeting in Washington D.C. The new municipal advisor registration rules are available here.
Municipalities are the lifeblood of many communities. They provide the …
Death of the Top-Up Option in Two-Step Transactions
James Matarese and Danielle Lauzon are M&A partners at Goodwin Procter LLP whose practices focus on technology and life sciences companies. Their recent representations include Onyx Pharmaceuticals in its merger with Amgen in a transaction valued at $10.4 billion.
On …
Do Activist Investors Constrain Managerial Moral Hazard in Chapter 11?
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 …
Ice Cube Bonds: Allocating the Price of Process in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
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, …
In the Wake of the Whale, What’s Changed?
The “London Whale” is far from the financial crime of the century, but it may well be the financial blunder of the decade. Crimes and blunders are, of course, different, but the slow and inconsistent response by JPMorgan Chase & …
How Pressure on the Issuers of Private-Label Mortgage-Backed Securities Can Improve the Accuracy of Credit Ratings
The following post comes to us from Brent J. Horton, assistant professor at Fordham University Gabelli School of Business.
In my recent Article, Toward a More Perfect Substitute: How Pressure on the Issuers of Private-Label Mortgage-Backed Securities Can Improve the …
The Government Shutdown Could Affect Your Transaction
The US antitrust authorities will cease certain of their operations during the pending government shutdown and your transaction may be affected.
The US antitrust agencies receive an average of 25 Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) filings per week. During the current government shutdown, …
Social Enterprise: What is it Good For?
The following comes to us from Brian Galle, an associate professor at Boston College Law School.
Social enterprise lawmaking is a growth industry. Over the past four years, state statutes authorizing new forms of corporate entities have proliferated. The new …
Greenberg Traurig Summarizes the 2013 Amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law
Recently, the Delaware legislature adopted and Delaware’s Governor signed into law several substantive amendments to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the DGCL), 8 Del. C. §§ 101 et seq.
New Provisions
Ratification of Defective Corporate …
Facebook, the JOBS Act, and Abolishing IPOs
The following comes to us from Adam C. Pritchard, the Frances and George Skestos Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.
A two-tier market system would go a long way toward promoting capital formation and curtailing speculation.…
Baker & Hostetler discusses the Philip Falcone & Harbinger Capital Settlement
On August 19, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that New York-based hedge fund adviser Philip A. Falcone and his advisory firm Harbinger Capital Partners — which once boasted $26 billion under management — agreed to a settlement …
Commoditizing Creditor Control
The following comes to us from Yesha Yadav, Assistant Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School:
Scholars have long lamented that the growth of modern finance has given way to a decline in corporate governance. According to current theory, the …
“Bad Actors” and Worse Policy
Is the SEC capable of blushing? Increasingly, there are occasions in which the Securities and Exchange Commission takes positions so inconsistent with the protection of investors and its own history and so deferential to the industry that one has to …
Sullivan & Cromwell discusses Shuanghui International’s CFIUS Clearance for its Purchase of Smithfield Foods
Shuanghui International Holdings Limited (“Shuanghui”) and Smithfield Foods, Inc. (“Smithfield”) announced on Friday that the companies have received notice from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) that its national security review of the proposed acquisition by
SEC Proposes Rules for Pay Ratio Disclosure
Facilitating General Solicitation at the Expense of Investors
Gibson Dunn on Recent developments and trends in corporate governance and executive remuneration in the U.K.
The following post is based on a recent Gibson Dunn memo, available here, that was originally published on August 27, 2013.
This post provides a brief summary of a number of recent developments and trends in corporate governance and
What to Do When an Activist Comes Knocking
The following comes to us from Charles M. Nathan, Partner and Head of Corporate Governance Practice at RLM Finsbury.
Activist investors are currently the darlings of the equity markets and the financial media. Many of the leading activist investors …
FINRA Actions and the Due Diligence Obligations of Broker-Dealers in Private Placements
Private placements and the due diligence obligations of broker-dealers in such transactions have recently come under increased scrutiny from FINRA as part of a broader trend reflected most notably in the filing requirements for private placements that went into effect