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Benjamin P. Edwards

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Benjamin Edwards joined the faculty of the William S. Boyd School of Law in 2017. He researches and writes about business and securities law, corporate governance, arbitration, and consumer protection.

Prior to teaching, Professor Edwards practiced as a securities litigator in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. At Skadden, he represented clients in complex civil litigation, including securities class actions arising out of the Madoff Ponzi scheme and litigation arising out of the 2008 financial crisis. Read More

Although it may have gotten a bit lost in the shuffle of the POTUS’s first ten days in office, the nomination of Representative Tom Price for the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services has received some negative attention in the press.  In short, as reported by a variety of news outlets (e.g., here and here and here), some personal stock trading transactions have raised questions about whether Representative Price may have inappropriately used information or his position to profit personally from securities trading activities, in violation of applicable ethical or legal rules.  This post offers some preliminary insights about the nature of the concerns, which are set forth in major part in this New York Times editorial from January 18, and joins others in calling for reform.

Concerns about legislators’ securities trading activities are not new.  As you may recall, a 2011 study (using data from 1985-2001) found that members of the U.S. House of Representatives do make abnormal returns on stock trades.  A 60 Minutes exposé, “Insiders,” then followed, which helped catalyze the adoption in 2012 of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (“STOCK”) Act.  A recently released paper catalogues this history and effects on those abnormal returns.  The findings in this paper, which focuses on Senate trading transactions, are summarized below.

Before “Insiders” aired, the market-value weighted hedged portfolio earns an annualized abnormal return of 8.8%. This abnormal return comes entirely from the sell-side of the portfolio, which earns an annualized 16.77% abnormal return. Post-60 Minutes, we find no evidence of continued outperformance in our market-value weighted portfolios. On average, abnormal returns to the market-value weighted sell portfolio are 24% lower post-60 Minutes, relative to the pre-60 Minutes sample. Taken together, our evidence suggests that, Senators, on the whole, outperformed the market pre-60 Minutes, and this systematic outperformance did not survive the attention paid to Senators’ investments surrounding the broadcast of “Insiders” and subsequent passage of the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

Just a quick post today to alert you to a new teaching text that you may want to consider if you teach business planning or another similar offering focusing on transactional business law.  My UT Law colleagues George Kuney, Brian Krumm, and Donna Looper are coauthors of the recently released teaching text, A Transactional Matter.  The description on amazon.com follows.

A Transactional Matter gives users a summary of a basic transaction from initial choice of entity for a new venture through the harvest of that venture through a sale of substantially all its assets to an acquirer. This book allows students to get a feel for how transactional lawyering actually works―examining client objectives, legal options, client counseling, due dilligence, documentation and implementation.

This book is available in both a print version and electronic version. The e-version has live hyperlinks to the underlying transactional documents and statutes, regs, and cases. The print version will be supported by a website giving access to the same materials. Both the e-book and website of print version will feature extensive hyperlinks to source documents and legal authorities.

The three coauthors bring to this book a wealth of business law experience in a variety of contexts (from bankruptcy…

Today, we again celebrate the life of a great American, Martin Luther King, Jr.  His legacy is felt in so many ways in this country every day in the year.  But today, we call him and his work out for special attention.

Many have noted that Martin Luther King, Jr. had messages for those engaged in and with business.  I have gathered some of those observations, as interpreted by a variety of folks, for today’s post.  Perhaps you have favorite quotes or stories of your own from Dr. King’s life that have touched your business law teaching or practice.  If so, please share them in the comments.  But here are some of the nifty ones I found.

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The members of Friday’s AALS discussion group about which I wrote last week came to an inescapable–if unsurprising–overall conclusion: the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in the Salman case does little to address major unresolved questions under U.S. insider trading law.  That having been said, we had a wide-ranging and sometimes exciting discussion about the Court’s opinion in Salman and what might or should come next.  I found the discussion very stimulating; a great way to start a new semester–especially one in which I am teaching Securities Regulation and Advanced Business Associations, both of which deal with insider trading law.  I will offer brief outtakes from the proceedings here for your consideration and (as desired) comment.

John Anderson and I framed three questions around which we structured the formal part of the discussion session (which commenced after brief introductory comments from each participant).

  • What, if anything, does the Court’s Salman opinion say by its silence?
  • What, if anything, is left of the Second Circuit opinion in the Newman case after Salman?
  • Is law reform needed after Salman, and if so, should we continue to permit it to occur through further, incremental judicial developments or should reform be undertaken through legislation or regulatory rule-making or guidance?

The…

Last week, friend of the BLPB Steve Bainbridge published a great hypothetical raising insider trading tipper issues post-Salman.  He invited comments.  So, I sent him one!  He has started posting comments in a mini-symposium.  Mine is here.  Andrew Verstein’s is here.  There may be more to come . . . .  I will try to remember to come back and edit this post to add any new links.  Prompt me, if you see one before I get to it . . . .

Postscript (January 5, 2017): James Park also has responded to Steve’s call for comments.  His responsive post is here.

Postscript (January 9, 2017, as amended): Mark Ramseyer has weighed in here.  And then Sung Hui Kim and Adam Pritchard added their commentary, here and here, respectively.  Steve collects the posts here.

Tomorrow, I am headed to the Association of American Law Schools (“AALS”) Annual Meeting in San Francisco (from Los Angeles, where I spent NYE and a bit of extra time with my sister).  I want to highlight a program at the conference for you all that may be of interest.  John Anderson and I have convened and are moderating a discussion group at the meeting entitled “Salman v. United States and the Future of Insider Trading Law.”  The program description, written after the case was granted certiorari by the SCOTUS and well before the Court’s opinion was rendered, follows:

In Salman v. United States, the United States Supreme Court is poised to take up the problem of insider trading for the first time in 20 years. In 2015, a circuit split arose over the question of whether a gratuitous tip to a friend or family member would satisfy the personal benefit test for insider trading liability. The potential consequences of the Court’s handling of this case are enormous for both those enforcing the legal prohibitions on insider trading and those accused of violating those prohibitions.

This discussion group will focus on Salman and its implications for the future of insider…

Ten days ago, I posted on conflicts of interest and the POTUS.  Today, friend-of-the-BLPB Ben Edwards has an Op Ed in The Washington Post on conflicts of a different kind–those created by brokerage compensation based on commissions for individual orders.  The nub:

In the current conflict-rich environment, Wall Street gorges itself on the public’s retirement assets. While transaction fees are costs to the public, they’re often juicy paydays for financial advisers. A study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that Americans pay approximately $17 billion annually in excess fees because of such conflicts of interest. The high fees mean that the typical saver will run out of retirement money five years earlier than he or she would have with better, more disinterested advice.

The solution posed (and fleshed out in a forthcoming article in the Ohio State Law Journal, currently available in draft form on SSRN here):

[S]imply banning commission compensation in connection with personalized investment advice would put market forces to work for consumers. This structure would kill the incentive for financial advisers to pitch lousy products with embedded fees to their clients. While the proposal might sound radical, Australia and Britain have…

The end of the calendar year brings many things–among others: the holidays (and I hope you have enjoyed and are enjoying them), the release of the last Oscar-contender movies, and the publication of oh-so-many “top ten” lists.

Apropos of the last of those three, I admit to being a bit proud, in a perverse sort of way, about spotting a “top ten” and commenting on it here on the BLPB.  Back in May and June, I blogged about consumer litigation against Starbucks (my daughter’s employer) involving coffee–too much ice, too hot, etc.  Apparently, those types of legal actions are among the “Top Ten Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2016.”  Specifically, two of those lawsuits against Starbucks (the one for too much ice and another alleging too much steamed milk) are #1 on the list.  Another consumer suit takes the #2 spot–a legal action asserting that a lip balm manufacturer’s packaging is misleading (specifically, making customers beehive there is more product in the tube than there actually is).  I continue to maintain (while acknowledging that consumer class action litigation can be useful when employed in cases that present a true danger to the consuming public), as I noted…

In her post on Saturday, co-blogger Ann Lipton offered observations about possible legal issues resulting from the President-Elect’s tweets regarding public companies.  She ends her post with the following:

So, it’s all a bit unsettled. Let’s just say these and other novel legal questions regarding the Trump administration are sure to provide endless fodder for academic analysis in the coming years.

Probably right.

Today, I take on a somewhat related topic.  I briefly explore the President-Elect’s conflicting interests through the lens of a corporate law advisor.  For the past few weeks, the media (see, e.g., here and here and here) and many folks I know have been concerned about the potential for conflict between the President-Elect’s role as the POTUS, public investor and leader of the United States, and his role as “The Donald,” private investor and leader of the Trump corporate empire.

The existence of a conflicting interest in an action or transaction is not, in and of itself, fatal or even necessarily problematic.  In a number of common situations, fiduciaries have interests in both sides of a transaction.  For example, a business founder who serves as a corporate director and officer may lease property she owns to the corporation.  What matters under…

As part of my “scared straight” strategy for teaching insider trading, I like to tell my students horror stories of attorneys who have been caught up in scandals (as well as the collective *facepalm* reaction of the bar, which is as much due to the stupidity of the schemes as to their immorality).

Last year, I recounted the curious case of Robert Schulman and King Pharmaceuticals.

Schulman was an attorney representing King Pharmaceuticals, and he learned that the company would soon be acquired by Pfizer.  He told his friend and investment adviser, Tibor Klein, who promptly purchased King shares for himself and his clients (some of which were allocated to Schulman’s account).  All told, Klein generated about $328K in profits.

The SEC charged Klein with insider trading in 2013.  Interestingly, the SEC did not accuse Schulman of tipping; instead, the SEC’s theory was that Schulman had gotten tipsy at dinner and shot off at the mouth, ultimately blurting out, “It would be nice to be King for a day.”  (When I tell my students this part, I imagine how that might have been said – presumably, with an exaggerated  wink and heavy emphasis on the word “King”).  Klein, having been…