Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Court Reinstates Insider Trading Claim Against Mark Cuban

On September 21, 2010, in S.E.C. v. Cuban, 2010 WL 3633059, No. 09-10996 (5th Cir.), a federal appeals court vacated a lower court decision that had dismissed the SEC’s well-publicized insider trading lawsuit against Mark Cuban.  The Fifth Circuit held that it was at least “plausible,” based on the SEC’s allegations, that Cuban had violated […]

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When is Disclosure of Adviser Conflicts Enough?

Investment advisers have a duty to disclose material conflicts of interest to clients.  The more difficult question is: “how much disclosure is enough?”  In a recent settled enforcement action, the SEC suggests that disclosure of material facts alone may not be sufficient, and that more explicit disclosure is needed when investment advice may result in […]

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Citizens United: Waking a Sleeping Giant

Editor’s Note: This post comes to us from Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Adjunct Professor of Constitutional Law at Rutgers University. A recent discussion paper issued by the Program, co-authored by Lucian Bebchuk and Robert Jackson Jr., discusses the corporate law rules that should govern […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Court Cases, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Op-Eds & Opinions | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Dynamic Competition, Valuation, and Merger Activity

In the paper, Dynamic Competition, Valuation, and Merger Activity, recently made publicly available on SSRN, we present an estimable model in order to address several questions. First, how do product market dynamics impact firm valuation? Second, how do these dynamics impact M&A activity? Third, what are the value implications for rivals? In the context of […]

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Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Poison Pill in Versata

In Versata Enterprises Inc. v. Selectica, Inc., No. 193, 2010 (Del. Oct. 4, 2010), the Delaware Supreme Court addressed the validity of a shareholder rights plan, or “poison pill”, for the first time in a number of years. The court upheld the adoption of a poison pill with a 4.99% trigger designed to protect a […]

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The Partner-Manager: Some Thoughts on Bebchuk and Fried

In the forthcoming University of Pennsylvania Law Review paper The Partner-Manager: Some Thoughts on Bebchuk and Fried, which comments on Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried, “Paying for Long-Term Performance” [U. Pa. L. Rev., Vol. 158, p. 1915-1959, 2010], I argue that this work, and their work on executive compensation more broadly, addresses the symptoms of […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Executive Compensation, HLS Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Corporate Governance Structure and Mergers

In the paper Corporate Governance Structure and Mergers, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we examine the balance of control between top-tier managers and shareholders using data from bank mergers over the period 1990-2004. Several studies have investigated the role of independent outside directors at nonfinancial firms. Independent boards (with more than 50 […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Banking & Financial Institutions, Boards of Directors, Empirical Research, Mergers & Acquisitions | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Cost Benefit Analysis of Pay Disparity Disclosure

As we previously discussed in our memorandum of August 2, the Dodd-Frank Act directs the SEC to amend the proxy rules to require disclosure of the ratio of the median annual total compensation of a company’s employees (excluding its chief executive officer) to the total annual compensation of its chief executive officer. For the sake […]

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Posted in Executive Compensation, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Reliability of Preliminary Earnings Releases

In the paper, The Unintended Consequences of PCAOB Auditing Standards Nos. 2 and 3 on the Reliability of Preliminary Earnings Releases, forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, we examine the trade-off that companies face in providing value relevant information on a timely basis through preliminary earnings announcements (PEAs) versus the potential loss of […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research, Financial Regulation | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Improving Governance of Chapter 11 Debtors

The concept of a debtor in possession – that incumbent directors and managers can be made into statutory fiduciaries to reorganize a business that failed under their leadership – is an inspired idea. It is a uniquely American expression of trust and confidence, and it is consistent with the principles of fresh start and renewal […]

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Posted in Bankruptcy & Financial Distress, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment