Columbia Law School
Sky Blog
Over the past several years, the exposure of U.S. investors and our capital markets to companies with significant operations in emerging markets, including China, has increased.[1] This increased exposure carries with it a number of significant risks and challenges,
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Columbia Law School Presents New Podcast Series, Beyond “Unprecedented”
Columbia Law School has launched a six-episode podcast series called Beyond “Unprecedented”: The Post-Pandemic Economy, hosted by Eric Talley, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law. In each episode, he and other experts at the law school explore …
Why the Law on Resolving Disputed Presidential Elections Is So Uncertain
As I’ve Zoom-traveled the country speaking about legal issues involving the election, I have found myself, as well as audiences, bewildered and frustrated by one underlying question: Why is there so much legal uncertainty about so many critical questions concerning …
To Mask Or Not To Mask? It’s Not a Constitutional Question
In 1979, police in Pensacola, Florida, arrested Ku Klux Klan member B.W. Robinson for covering his face at a rally. He pleaded no contest so he could appeal his conviction to the Florida Supreme Court. Once there, Robinson challenged the …
Closing the “RegLag” Between Prospective Regulated Activity and Regulation
There is often a significant delay between the start of an activity that ends up being regulated and the moment a regulatory response is announced or adopted. This regulatory lag (RegLag) enables individuals, firms, and regulators to engage in undesirable …
Gibson Dunn Discusses U.S. Banking Regulation of Confidential Supervisory Information
One of the thornier areas of law for U.S.-regulated banks and their holding companies is that regarding confidential supervisory information (CSI). U.S. regulators treat bank examination reports and related correspondence and materials, which are often the most useful sources of …
Arnold & Porter Discusses Three Things to Know About PPP Fair Lending Scrutiny
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced that it will adjust its supervision program by rescheduling a portion of its planned examination work. Instead, the agency will conduct prioritized assessments, which it describes …
The Politics of Institutional Shareholder Voting: Transparency Before Reform
On July 22, the SEC finalized a sweeping rule change to enhance the transparency around the role of proxy advisers. This follows an earlier proposal to reform the process for including shareholder proposals in a company’s proxy statement.[1] These …
COVID-19: Impossible Contracts and Force Majeure
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 – as well as government orders to contain it – have prevented countless people, babysitters to basketball players, from fulfilling their contracts. Are all of these parties legally liable for breaching their contracts? Or …
Davis Polk Discusses IRS Proposal on Carried Interest Regulations
On July 31, the IRS and Treasury proposed regulations (the “Carried Interest Regulations”) on the taxation of carried interest under Section 1061 of the tax code. Section 1061 was added to the tax code as part of the 2017 tax …
Is Social Capital Associated with Corporate Innovation?
Both formal and informal institutions affect economic behavior in important ways, as economist Douglass C. North explained in his 1993 Nobel Prize lecture. Formal institutions include laws and regulations, and informal institutions include culture and norms. In a recent study, …
Davis Polk Discusses OCC Letter Confirming that National Banks May Provide Cryptocurrency Custody
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the OCC) issued an interpretive letter (the Letter) confirming that national banks and federal savings associations (together, banks) may provide cryptocurrency custody services.[1] This Letter is the latest …
Central Bank Digital Currencies and the New World of Money and Payment Systems
Three catalysts are causing a fundamental reorientation of domestic and international monetary and payment systems: Facebook’s Libra, China’s central bank digital currency (the Digital Currency / Electronic Payment (DCEP) system), and the COVID-19 pandemic. These catalysts stand in stark contrast …
Corporate Innovation in the Age of Cyber Threats
Firms’ increasing reliance on information technologies has reshaped the global economy and disrupted entire industries while also presenting new and rapidly evolving sources of risk. Recent successful cyberattacks have harmed consumers, shareholders, and market professionals, often resulting in the illegal …
Skadden Discusses Enforcement Risks and the CARES Act
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27, 2020, provided for the establishment and expansion of a range of economic assistance programs designed to help U.S. businesses manage …
We the Shareholders: Government Market Participation in the Postliberal U.S. Political Economy
In the middle decades of the 20th century, government officials broadened access to the courts, placing public law more at the center of traditionally private disputes. They professionalized and regularized criminal justice, which previously had been a somewhat, if not …
Cadwalader Discusses Covid-19, PPP Loans, and the Safe Harbor Date for Returning Loans
The Small Business Administration (“SBA”), in consultation with the Treasury Department, issued FAQ #43 on May 5, 2020 extending by a week the time within which a borrower has to repay a previously issued SBA loan under the …
Extreme Times, Extreme Measures: Pandemic-Resistant Corporate Law
These are exceptional times, and policymakers are taking exceptional measures in public health, public finance, monetary policy, and public law. Among the latter, of great relevance to corporate governance are the rules broadening governments’ powers to authorize large share block …
How to Start Rebuilding Supply Chains in the Wake of Covid-19
The Covid-19 outbreak demonstrates how vulnerable our elaborate cross-border supply chains are to disruption. It isn’t the first time in recent memory that contemporary supply chains have been upended – the 2011 earthquake off the coast of eastern Japan is …
Wachtell Lipton on The CARES Act: Litigation and Enforcement Lessons from the Financial Crisis
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), which was signed into law on March 27, 2020, provides $2 trillion in emergency relief to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, and financial institutions. This includes up to $349 …