July 2020

A few of us have blogged about benefit corporations here from time to time; they’re a controversial business form, in part because there are disputes about whether they actually are materially different from the ordinary corporate form, and in part because of flaws in states’ adopting legislation.

The basic issue here is that, as we all know, the business judgment rule is robust enough that corporate directors are perfectly free, as a practical matter, to pursue a stakeholder-oriented mission without the need of any special form.  The reason they do not has little to do with their formal legal obligations, and everything to do with the market for corporate control: If directors do not put shareholders first, their companies may become ripe for a takeover and they may be voted out of office.

In theory, benefit corporations could solve a shareholder collective action problem. Let’s assume, as some theorize, that given the choice, many shareholders would actually prefer not to maximize their own welfare but instead to share those gains with other stakeholders.  The problem is, they may experience defection in their own ranks.  Over time, some shareholders may change their minds and prefer to keep all excess profits; or…

This coming week, the Association of American Law Schools will host its seventh week of special summer webinars geared to providing assistance to under-supported law faculty in our current unusual circumstances.  The series, dubbed “Faculty Focus,” is described in the following way on the program website (which also includes information about upcoming programs):

COVID-19 has affected the normal rhythms of the legal academy in ways that may be particularly disruptive for early-career faculty.

AALS invites tenure-track, clinical, and legal writing faculty to join us on Tuesday afternoons for “Faculty Focus,” a series of weekly webinars organized around issues these individuals may be facing as well as challenges affecting higher education and the profession in general.

Each 60-minute webinar will feature expert advice from law school leaders followed by shared experiences from early career law faculty. The sessions will be structured to encourage conversation and connection, with opportunities for participants to crowdsource solutions and discuss common issues across schools and teaching areas.

Although I am not in the target audience, I have enjoyed several of these programs.  Here is a list of the programs held to date:

Week 1: Work-Life Balance and the Demands of Scholarship
Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Week…

In a past post (here), I mentioned stumbling (thankfully!!) into teaching in the area of Negotiation and Dispute Resolution while a PhD student focused on financial regulation.  For so many reasons, the opportunity to pursue doctoral studies in the Ethics & Legal Studies Program at the Wharton Business School was truly a great blessing!  So, I’m delighted to share with BLPB readers that applications for the Program’s incoming class of 2021 are now being accepted.  If you – or someone you know – might be interested in learning more, an quick overview is provided below and an informational flyer here: Download Ethics&LegalStudiesDoctoralProgram

The Ethics & Legal Studies Doctoral Program at Wharton focuses on the study of ethics and law in business. It is designed to prepare graduates for tenure-track careers in university teaching and research at leading business schools, and law schools.

Our curriculum crosses many disciplinary boundaries. Students take a core set of courses in the area of ethics and law in business, along with courses in an additional disciplinary concentration such as law, management, philosophy/ethical theory, finance, marketing, or accounting. Students can take courses in other Penn departments and can pursue joint degrees. Additionally, our program…

Earlier today (July 14), Fordham University hosted a webinar entitled Reopening Justly or Just Reopening: Catholic Social Teaching, Universities & COVID-19.   

Speakers on the topic of the ethics of reopening schools include the following theology professors: 

Christine Firer Hinze discussed Catholic Social Thought, human dignity, and solidarity. She reminded us that reopening universities is literally a question of life and death, but is also a question of livelihood. Gerald Beyer stressed looking to the the latest science and considering the common good (the flourishing of all). Craig Ford commented on the reality that some universities may be facing financial collapse, that the pandemic is likely to be with us for a long while, and that there are no perfect solutions. Ford also suggested a focus on protecting those who are most vulnerable. Kate Ward talked about moral injury, lamentation, and redemption. A question and answer period — including on the topics of racial justice, transparency, shared sacrifices and mental health — followed opening remarks.

Earlier today, I submitted a book chapter with the same title as this blog post.  The chapter, written for an international management resource on Digital Entrepreneurship and the Sharing Economy, represents part of a project on crowdfunding and poverty that I have been researching and thinking through for a bit over two years now.  My chapter abstract follows:

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and created economic hardship all over the world.  The United States is no exception.  Among other things, the economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis deepen pre-existing concerns about financing U.S. businesses formed and promoted by entrepreneurs of modest means.

In May 2016, a U.S. federal registration exemption for crowdfunded securities offerings came into existence (under the CROWDFUND Act) as a means of helping start-ups and small businesses obtain funding.  In theory, this regime was an attempt to fill gaps in U.S. securities law that handicapped entrepreneurs and their promoters from obtaining equity, debt, and other financing through the sale of financial investment instruments over the Internet.  The use of the Internet for business finance is particularly important to U.S. entrepreneurs who may not have access to funding because of their own limited financial and economic positions.…

Helpful article here (on SSRN) by Nina Kohn. (H/T to Jessica Erickson on Twitter).

As law school classes move online, it is imperative that law faculty understand not only how to teach online, but how to teach well online. This article therefore is designed to help law faculty do their best teaching online. It walks faculty through key choices they must make when designing online courses, and concrete ways that they can prepare themselves and their students to succeed. The article explains why live online teaching should be the default option for most faculty, but also shows how faculty can enhance student learning by incorporating asynchronous lessons into their online classes. It then shows how faculty can set up their virtual teaching space and employ diverse teaching techniques to foster an engaging and rigorous online learning environment. The article concludes by discussing how the move to online education in response to COVID-19 could improve the overall quality of law school teaching.

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A few months ago, I mentioned taking the free Yale University online course The Science of Well Being taught by Professor Laurie Santos.

Before jumping into the substance of the course, I wanted to talk a bit about the format. The course was likely filmed with better equipment than most of us will have in the fall. The videos were mostly under 15 minutes each, and the videos usually had quiz questions to keep you engaged. Then there were longer quizzes at the end of sections and discussion boards.

Even though this was a Yale course, on an interesting subject, with a gifted professor, I probably would not have paid even $1 for this course. The material was surely worth more than $1, but there is simply too much good free information online, in this format, for me to pay anything for it. This fact is sobering to me as a professor, given that at least some of my students will be online-only this fall. The real value, I think, springs from interaction – between professor and student, and between the students themselves. As such, I need to plan my courses with a fair bit of this interaction.

Moving…

Greetings from Miami, Florida, COVID19 hotspot. Yesterday, 33% of those tested had a positive result. Although my university still plans to have some residential instruction as of the time of this writing, most of us are preparing to go fully online at some point. In Part I,   Part II, and Part III, I provided perspectives from experts in learning. I’m still gathering that information.

This week, however, I spoke to the real experts — students. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hear from students studying business and human rights from all over the world courtesy of the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum. I’ve also been talking to research assistants and other current and former students. Here’s a summary of their conclusions:

  • We know that Spring was hard for everyone and that everyone is still learning how to teach online. Do not be worried about making mistakes. 
  • Don’t assume that we are all digital natives. Some of us are older students or not used to the technology that you have decided to use. Make sure that the interface is intuitive and use tech in fun and interesting ways. (One professor used Jeopardy online and students

…

The Delaware Supreme Court has, shall we say, an uneven relationship with the concept of market efficiency.

For many years, it entirely ignored or even disdained the concept.  See Verition Partners Master Fund Ltd. v. Aruba Networks, Inc, 2018 WL 922139, at *30 n.305 (Del. Ch. Feb. 15, 2018).  However, beginning with DFC Glob. Corp. v. Muirfield Value P’rs, L.P., 172 A.3d 346 (Del. 2017), the Court began to endorse the concept in the context of appraisal proceedings, though the significance it placed on efficiency was not entirely clear.  When Vice Chancellor Laster relied entirely on market efficiency to value shares for appraisal purposes, the Delaware Supreme Court rejected his analysis, emphasizing that market price is but one aspect of an appraisal valuation, and that “informational” market efficiency is not equivalent to “fundamental value” efficiency.

The Delaware Supreme Court’s new decision in Fir Tree Value Master Fund LP et al. v. Jarden Corporation seems to muddy the waters further.

Originally, VC Slights held that a target’s market price was the best evidence of standalone value, mainly because the other potential measures were lacking.  The deal price was flawed because the target CEO had arguably run…

Yesterday, Randal K. Quarles, the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), gave a speech at the Exchequer Club entitled “Global in Life and Orderly in Death: Post-Crisis Reforms and the Too-Big-to-Fail Question” (here).  As he notes, the catchy first part of this title harkens back to the 2010 words of Mervyn King, then Governor of the Bank of England, who stated that “most large complex financial institutions are global—at least in life if not in death.”  Quarles asserts that “In this pithy sentence, he [King] summed up the challenge policymakers faced.” 

The context of Quarles’ speech is the FSB’s recent consultation report: Evaluation of the effects of too-big-to-fail reforms (here).  Two major challenges post-crisis banking reforms sought to address were: 1) the market’s assumption that big banks would not be allowed to fail, and the moral hazard this created, and 2) the absence of effective resolution frameworks for global banks, which lead to bank rescues.   There’s lots of good news here, including that prior to the current crisis, globally systemically important bank capital ratios had doubled since 2011 to 14%. …