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The defense for Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Coal, rested today without putting on any witnesses.  Blankenship is on trial because he is charged with conspiring to violate federal safety standards. Investigators believe that Blankenship’s methods contributed to a mine disaster that killed 29 people at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.  

One part of the trial has an interesting business law component.  Prosecutors have tried to show the Blankenship’s interest in making more money was a key factor in cutting corners.  One West Virginia news paper reported it this way:

“The government is using his compensation package as an indication of how much production mattered to Don,” said Mike Hissam, partner at Bailey & Glasser. “They’re using his compensation to establish a motive for him lying and making false statements to investors, their theory being his compensation was so tied up with company stock he had a motive for lying to the SEC and the public to protect his own personal net worth.”

It’s possible that this is accurate, but I am leery of that line of thinking.  It’s not that I don’t think it’s possible Blankenship cut corners because it cost money…

I had the honor of being invited to speak at the annual symposium for the Wayne Law Review two weeks ago.  The event, which focused on Corporate Counsel as Gatekeepers, was well organized and attended–and also very stimulating.  Speakers included Tony West as a keynote, a few of us academics, and a bunch of current and former practitioners–prosecutors, in-house counsel, and outside counsel.

My presentation focused on a story that bugs me–a story built on an experience I had in practice.  In the story (which modifies the true facts), an executive flagrantly violates a securities trading compliance plan that I drafted in connection with a subsequent transaction that I worked on for the executive’s firm.  Specifically, the executive informs a friend about the transaction the day before it is announced, believing that the friend will never trade on the information.  The friend trades.  The incident results in a stock exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) inquiries.  No enforcement is undertaken against the firm.  However, the executive signs a consent decree with–and pays a cash penalty to–the SEC and, together with the firm, suffers public humiliation via a front-page article in the local newspaper (since the SEC would not agree to forego a press release).  This fact pattern gnaws at me because I wonder whether there is anything more legal counsel can do to prevent an executive from violating a compliance policy to the detriment of himself and the firm . . . .

So, my rants about the problem of courts (and others) conflating LLCs and corporations are not new.  Unfortunately for the proper evolution of the law, but good fodder for my posts, I continue to get examples.  We now have a new one that raises the bar a bit.

 A recent case from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania continues the trend. The beauty, if one can call it that, of the case is that there are failures to recognize the difference between LLCs and corporations at multiple levels. 

 First, though, let’s recap what LLCs are.  LLCs are limited liability companies, and they are creatures of statute. See, e.g., 6 Del. C. § 18-101, et seq.  As such, they are not corporations, which are creatures of other statutes. Cf., e.g., 8 Del. Code § 101, et. seq. In contrast, LLCs, like corporations and other associations, can be people.  See, e.g.,  Dictionary Act, 1 U.S. Code § 1 (“[The wor[d] ‘person’ . . . include[s] corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals.”).

Back to our newest example, which I think of as a…

From potential employers to faculty, I hear a common mantra that students are “no longer able to write.” Thus, we need to get them practice ready in a way that apparently we, as law schools, used to do. 

I, too, share frustration with poorly written materials and poor performance generally. I also worry about the practice-ready nature of some of our students. Still, I find myself compelled to say that, in my experience, the vast majority of our students are thoughtful, intelligent, and capable.

I also can say that many of our students do not push themselves to deliver the high-quality work product of which they are capable.  I long for the self-motivated student, the same way I have (at times) longed for the self-motivated employee.  Some people have it, and some people don’t.  Like height, one can’t really teach motivation, but we can try to help students find their own motivation from within.  And we can set expectations high enough that failure is, in fact, an option. 

I have come in contact with quite a few students, and I don’t think we have an actual literacy problem with the students I have taught over the years (a few stark…

Last week was the oral midterm examination week for students in my in Business Associations class.  I admit to exhaustion and jubilation at the end of that week every year.  I think the students feel about the same way . . . .

This year’s examination related to an expulsion of members in a member-managed limited liability company (LLC).  The facts were based on an interesting Tennessee case with which many LLC aficionados are no doubt familiar: Anderson v. Wilder.  The exam questions related to the validity and effects of the expulsion under the Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act and the LLC’s operating agreement, the potential breaches of fiduciary duty and failure to comply with the contractual obligation of good faith and fair dealing, and the possible resulting causes of action and remedies–including any effects of the members’ dissociation.

In a blog post last weekend from Lou Sirico and our other friends at the Legal Skills Prof Blog, I divined support for all of us who engage in practice-focused legal education: these teaching/learning methods can help students to thrive, not merely survive.  It has been my (admittedly anecdotal) observation that students who engage in simulations (as well as those who participate in clinics and internships/externships) in law school are happier and more well-adjusted about their education and their post-graduation employment.  Last week’s oral midterms–conducted in groups of three–gave me some windows on that world.  I will share a few here.

I think my life as a compliance officer would have been much easier had the DOJ issued its latest memo when I was still in house. As the New York Times reported yesterday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has heard the criticism and knows that her agency may face increased scrutiny from the courts. Thus the DOJ has announced via the “Yates Memorandum” that it’s time for some executives to go to jail. Companies will no longer get favorable deferred or nonprosecution agreements unless they cooperate at the beginning of the investigation and provide information about culpable individuals.

This morning I provided a 7-minute interview to a reporter from my favorite morning show NPR’s Marketplace. My 11 seconds is here. Although it didn’t make it on air, I also discussed (and/or thought about) the fact that compliance officers spend a great deal of time training employees, developing policies, updating board members on their Caremark duties, scanning the front page of the Wall Street Journal to see what company had agreed to sign a deferred prosecution agreement, and generally hoping that they could find something horrific enough to deter their employees from going rogue so that they wouldn’t be…

Limited liability companies (LLCs) are often viewed as some sort of a modified corporation.  This is wrong, as LLCs are unique entities (as are, for example, limited partnerships), but that has not stopped lawyers and courts, including this nation’s highest court, from conflating LLCs and corporations.  

About four and a half years ago, in a short Harvard Business Law Review Online article, I focused on this oddity, noting that many courts

seem to view LLCs as close cousins to corporations, and many even appear to view LLCs as subset or specialized types of corporations. A May 2011 search of Westlaw’s “ALLCASES” database provides 2,773 documents with the phrase “limited liability corporation,” yet most (if not all) such cases were actually referring to LLCs—limited liability companies. As such, it is not surprising that courts have often failed to treat LLCs as alternative entities unto themselves. It may be that some courts didn’t even appreciate that fact. (footnotes omitted).

I have been writing about this subject again recently, so I decided to revisit the question of just how many courts call LLCs “limited liability corporations” instead of “limited liability companies.”  I returned to Westlaw, though this time…

As many readers already know, I teach Corporate Finance in the fall semester as a three-credit-hour planning and drafting seminar.  The course is designed to teach students various contexts in which valuations are used in the legal practice of corporate finance, the key features of simple financial instruments, and legal issues common to basic corporate finance transactions (including M&A).  In the process of teaching this substance, I introduce the students to various practice tips and tools.

As part of teaching M&A in this course and in my Advanced Business Associations course, I briefly cover the anatomy of an M&A transaction and the structure of a typical M&A agreement.  For outside reading on these topics, I am always looking for great practical summaries.  For example, Summary of Acquisition Agreements, 51 U. Miami L. Rev. 779 (1997), written by my former Skadden colleagues Lou Kling and Eileen Nugent (together with then law student, Michael Goldman)  has been a standard-bearer for me.  In recent years, practice summaries available through Bloomberg, LexisNexis, and Westlaw (Practical Law Company) have been great supplements to the Miami Law Review article.  In our transaction simulation course, which is more advanced, I often assign part of Anatomy…

This weekend I will be in Panama filling in at the last minute for the corporate law session for an executive LLM progam. My students are practicing lawyers from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Paraguay and have a variety of legal backgrounds. My challenge is to fit key corporate topics (other than corporate governance, compliance, M & A, finance, and accounting) into twelve hours over two days for people with different knowledge levels and experiences. The other faculty members hail from law schools here and abroad as well as BigLaw partners from the United States and other countries.

Prior to joining academia I spent several weeks a year training/teaching my internal clients about legal and compliance matters for my corporation. This required an understanding of US and host country concepts. I have also taught in executive MBA programs and I really enjoyed the rich discussion that comes from students with real-world practical experience. I know that I will have that experience again this weekend even though I will probably come back too brain dead to be coherent for my civil procedure and business associations classes on Tuesday.

I have put together a draft list of topics with the help…