Every year, the Corporate Practice Commentator publishes an annual list of each year’s best corporate and securities law articles. Bob Thompson, a law professor at Georgetown, is currently the curator of that list. Each year, he circulates a ballot to corporate and securities scholars with a list of articles for them to vote on.

I’ve always been a little skeptical of this list, and not just because I’ve never been on it (I don’t think). There are over 500 articles on the list and, unless most professors have more time on their hands than I do, they haven’t read most of those articles. Even if they had, I’m not sure a popular vote, even one limited to law professors, is the best way to measure quality. And quality often becomes apparent only over time, when one can see the effect the article has had.

Having said that, I have nothing against Professor Thompson’s poll, even though I don’t participate. But his recent solicitation to participate in this year’s balloting prompted me to think about the other side of things: what are the worst corporate and securities law articles of the year?

We should probably exclude student-written notes and comments in creating such a list. It’s isn’t fair to compare amateurs to professional academics (although I’ve read many student articles that are far better than some of the professionally written drivel). But what are the worst articles law professors write each year?

I’ve read some real stinkers over my 30-year career—or I should say I have begun to read some real stinkers over my career; it’s usually clear very early if an article is terrible. It would have been nice to have a list to warn me not to waste my time.

I would start a list like that, but I’m afraid too many people would vote to put my articles on it. Instead, I’ve decided to keep my own private list, beginning this year. No one else gets to see it, but be warned that one of your publications may be enshrined on my own personal wall of shame.

Note: Any comments attempting to nominate articles for the “worst” list will not be posted. I don’t want to make any more enemies than I already have.