During the past few days, I have participated in a lot of meetings.

This has led to some thinking on what makes a good meeting.

To me, a useful meeting is one that accomplishes things that could not be handled appropriately by an e-mail. Some meetings are held, I am convinced, because those calling the meetings are not sure that participants read and pay attention to e-mails. This worry could be best addressed, in my opinion, by making expectations regarding e-mail management clear, perhaps coupled with consequences for those who ignore the contents.

That said, e-mail is not appropriate in all cases and here are four categories where in-person meetings can work better than e-mail:

  1. Inspire. Perhaps some can be inspired over e-mail, but it seems much easier to inspire in person. As such, I think some good meetings can be used to inspire participants to achieve organizational goals. But inspiring others, especially sometimes cynical professors, can be difficult to do.
  2. Build Relationships. Sometimes the only times you see certain colleagues are at faculty meetings, so meetings can be a good way to build relationships, especially if folks hang around before and after meetings or if significant time is given for small group discussion.
  3. Engage in Group Discussions. E-mail is pretty good for one-way communication, but as anyone who has been on a group e-mail with hundreds of replies knows, e-mail isn’t great for dynamic group conversation. As such, it may make sense to have meetings when a group needs to converse about working through an issue. That said, preparation for the meeting can often be done alone, and the lion-share of the conversation can be done in small groups.
  4. Engage in Difficult Conversations. When tone is important, e-mail is often inadequate. Thus, in-person meetings may be important for communication of sensitive or controversial information.

When meetings focus on things that cannot be done remotely, I think meetings can be quite useful. Similarly, when teaching, we should think – what is it that students cannot get through an e-mail, the internet, or an online class? We should focus on those things. As such, I am trying to do even more interactive projects and small group discussions in class this semester.

I’m now in my third year of teaching on the tenure track after two years of a VAP. I still consider myself a newbie because despite over twenty years of practice experience, teaching is a whole different ball game.

This semester I am teaching Civil Procedure, which is now a one-semester 4-credit class instead of a two-semester class, and a 4-credit Business Associations class. Both are required at my institution and bar tested in Florida. I have taught them both before and thankfully get strong reviews from my students, but I am always looking to improve.

To that end, I recently took a look at Emily Grant’s essay, Beyond Best Practices: Lessons from Tina Stark About the First Day of Class. The abstract states:

This Article reviews and expands the literature on best practices in a narrow subset — the first day of class. As the same time it seeks to convey words of wisdom from one of the most well-known and highly-regarded legal educators: Tina Stark, a giant in transactional drafting. The first day of any law school class can be fraught with tension and nerves, even for professors. This article presents advice from Professor Stark, supplemented with guidance from best practices research, so that professors can take advantage of the opportunities that the first day of class offers to set the tone for a successful semester.

I haven’t adopted all of the suggestions– I don’t think it’s wise, for example, for an untenured professor to have students use my first name. However, I have used some variation of her techniques to make students more comfortable both before and during class. I continue to find value in the survey that I send to students prior to the semester so that I can ascertain their level of understanding of business concepts, their learning objectives, and their expected area of practice. For the first time this semester, I will send an anonymous survey after the midterm asking students what they think is working and what they think needs improvement. I may not take all of the students’ suggestions, but because I am trying new things this semester including more graded quizzes and a flipped classroom, I don’t want to waste time using ineffective techniques.

Like Stark, I also share a “humbling story” on the first day of class. This is especially important for many of my Business Associations students who fear anything related to math, numbers, or accounting. I explain my career path as a litigator and how it was naively designed to avoid interaction with complex business topics. I also discuss how what we learn will help the family, criminal, and litigation-minded students who don’t understand how this course will apply to them after the bar.

Stark focuses on a collaborative classroom and team grading, and I do as well. For the first time, I have flipped the classroom in both Civil Procedure and Business Associations, and therefore the students see my PowerPoints and helpful videos prior to class. During class we apply what they have learned. They work in law firms during class where they caucus to determine a team answer to the problems sets I have given them in advance or they work on new problems or drafting exercises based on what they have reviewed prior to class.

Stark brings in homemade brownies for her students. I’m too lazy for that so I will bring in energy bars and Vitamin C before midterms and finals, and buy lunch or bagels for students who show up to my marathon review sessions. I agree with Stark’s view that making the students feel comfortable in a supportive learning environment makes them more apt to ask questions both in class and during office hours.

I recommend the article even though many of you may be past the first day already or veteran educators. I also welcome any suggestions that you have found helpful in improving the learning environment. Please leave comments below or email me offline at mnarine@stu.edu

 

Increasing business demands are prompting companies to expand into new products and markets. Businesses also are engaging in mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures; issuing  securities; and performing other transactions associated with business growth, which results in larger corporate teams. Many companies have a need for additional in-house legal professionals who are readily available to help manage mounting financial and industry-related regulations. Moreover, corporate legal departments often prefer to handle more routine legal work in-house and retain the services of outside counsel for specialized legal work.

Real estate, IP, health care and compliance were also mentioned along with the noted strong growth in litigation.  The full report/study is available here:  Download Legal_2016_job_salary_guide.

 

-Anne Tucker

I am still working my way through this new paper, Seeking an Angle of Repose in U.S. Business Organization Law: Fiduciary Duty Themes and Observations, from J. William Callison of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP. It’s an interesting premise, and worth a look. Here’s the abstract:

This article applies liberal, neoliberal, critical, feminist and communitarian political theories to limited liability company and partnership fiduciary duty law; discusses developments in that law over the last two decades by focusing on theory; suggests a pragmatic and balanced approach to fiduciary duty law that incorporates desirable features of different approaches; and suggests that law, as developed in uniform acts, has been moving toward a balanced approach.

The paper is available here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2827771

We are now more than three months into the Title III crowdfunding experiment.  I have been wanting to get back to posting on Title III crowdfunding since my “LIVE” post back in May, but so much other fun stuff has been going on!  So, to make me feel a bit better on that point, I will share some current crowdfunding data with you all in this post based on publicly available information obtained from a Westlaw search performed yesterday (Sunday, August 21, 2016).  [Note to the powers that be at the SEC:  EDGAR makes it hard to find the aggregated set of Form C filings unless you are collecting data on an ongoing basis.  I hope that changes as EDGAR continues to improve . . . .]  

At the outset, I will note that others have offered their own reports on Title III crowdfunding since I last posted (including here, here, and here).  These reports offer some nice summaries.  This post offers a less comprehensive data dump focusing in on completed offerings and withdrawn offerings.  At the end, I offer some limited observations from the information provided here about crowdfunding as a small-business capital-raising alternative, the need for EDGAR adjustments, inferences about the success of Title III crowdfunded offerings, and platform disclosure about withdrawn offerings.

First, however, the top-level Westlaw-based summary:

Total Form C filings: 85 (275 filings show on Westlaw, but only 85 are non-exhibit filings representing distinct offerings)
Total Form C/A filings (amendments, including exhibit filings): 153
Total Form C-U filings (updates): 4
Total Form C-W filings (withdrawals): 2

The remainder of this post takes a shallow dive into the updates and withdrawals.  Filings in each case are presented in reverse chronological order by filing date.  All referenced dates are in 2016.  Issuer names are copied from filings and may not be the actual legal names of the entities.

Continue Reading A Bit More Title III Crowdfunding Data . . . .

Upper level classes start next week, and I am scrambling to prepare.   So for my post, I’ll just drop some quick links to things I found interesting this week:

First, a nice long read for Saturday: How Lending Club’s Biggest Fanboy Uncovered Shady Loans. This is a deep dive into the story of a retail investor who dug into Lending Club’s loan data – and discovered that Lending Club was padding its loan data before the company confessed publicly.  He also seems to have discovered a pattern of repeat borrowers that the company has never disclosed.

Second, here is an editorial by a Deutsche Bank risk-officer-turned-SEC-whistleblower who says he is rejecting his reward, out of disgust that the company – and its shareholders – will be paying the fines that rightly should be charged to the company’s executives.  He blames the SEC’s “revolving door,” pointing out that top SEC lawyers had formerly been employed by Deutsche Bank (though they were recused from the investigation).  The gesture would be slightly more impressive if it didn’t turn out that most of his reward is going to his lawyers, the experts he hired, and his ex-wife as part of his divorce settlement, and he doesn’t have the legal power to turn it down.  But he totally would if he could.*

Third, the jurors in the Sean Stewart insider trading trial report that their deliberations took a long time because they couldn’t quite decide if the defendant received a “personal benefit” under United States v. Newman standards by passing tips to his father.  Obviously, whether a “benefit” is even necessary for a relationship this close is something that the Supreme Court is set to determine in Salman v. United States; in the meantime, it seems as though courts in New York are stuck asking about the quid pro quo between fathers and sons.  Harsh, man.  Couldn’t the prosecutors have just argued that the father gave his son life?

 

*okay, I might be being unfair; his award is in excess of $8 million, so even after paying off everyone else, he may be rejecting a sizeable sum.  Still, it’s funny that he’s trying to turn down money that, um, belongs to his ex-wife.

The concept of private prisons has always seemed off to me.  Prisons have a role in society, but the idea of running such institutions for profit, it seems to me, aligns incentives in an improper way. The U.S. Justice Department apparently agrees and said yesterday that it plans to end the use of private prisons.  The announcement sent stocks tumbling for two private prison companies, Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) and GEO.  Both dropped as much as 40% and remain down more than 30% from where they were before the announcement.   

Obviously, this can’t make shareholders happy, but I figured this had to be a known risk. I was right — CCA’s 10-K makes clear that such government decisions related to future contracts could lead to a reduction in their profitability.  So, the disclosure seems proper from a securities regulation perspective. Still, reading the disclosure raises some serious questions for me about the proper role of government.  I frankly find this kind of outsourcing chilling.  For example, CCA states: 

Our results of operations are dependent on revenues generated by our jails, prisons, and detention facilities, which are subject to the following risks associated with the corrections and detention industry.

We are subject to fluctuations in occupancy levels, and a decrease in occupancy levels could cause a decrease in revenues and profitability.  . . . We are dependent upon the governmental agencies with which we have contracts to provide inmates for our managed facilities.

. . . .

We are dependent on government appropriations and our results of operations may be negatively affected by governmental budgetary challenges. . . . [and] our customers could reduce inmate population levels in facilities we own or manage to contain their correctional costs. . . .

The idea of “customers” in this contest simply does not sit well with me.  It suggests a desire for something that is not a positive. CCA’s 10-K continues: 

Competition for inmates may adversely affect the profitability of our business. We compete with government entities and other private operators on the basis of bed availability, cost, quality, and range of services offered, experience in managing facilities and reputation of management and personnel. While there are barriers to entering the market for the ownership and management of correctional and detention facilities, these barriers may not be sufficient to limit additional competition. In addition, our government customers may assume the management of a facility that they own and we currently manage for them upon the termination of the corresponding management contract or, if such customers have capacity at their facilities, may take inmates currently housed in our facilities and transfer them to government-run facilities. . . .

Competition is a good thing in many (I think most), but this is not one of them. These companies are responding to the existing demand for prison services, but there can be no question the real opportunity for market growth is to increase demand for such services (e.g., increase the number of prisoners, seek longer sentences).  This, too, is made clear in the disclosures:

Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. This possible growth depends on a number of factors we cannot control, including crime rates and sentencing patterns in various jurisdictions, governmental budgetary constraints, and governmental and public acceptance of privatization. The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Immigration reform laws are currently a focus for legislators and politicians at the federal, state, and local level. Legislation has also been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some non-violent crimes and make more inmates eligible for early release based on good behavior. Also, sentencing alternatives under consideration could put some offenders on probation with electronic monitoring who would otherwise be incarcerated. Similarly, reductions in crime rates or resources dedicated to prevent and enforce crime could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional facilities. 

CCA does note that their “policy prohibits [them] from engaging in lobbying or advocacy efforts that would influence enforcement efforts, parole standards, criminal laws, and sentencing policies.” These disclosures, though, sure make clear what kind of policies their shareholders would want to support.  

I don’t have any illusion that government run prisons are much (if any) better, but I do think that government’s incentives are at least supposed to be aligned with the public good when it comes to the prison system.  I often think government should take a more limited role than it does when it comes to regulations.  That is especially true when it comes to criminal law. But privatizing prisons is not reducing the role of government in our lives — it is simply outsourcing one key portion of the government’s role.  Private prisons do not equate to smaller government. Fewer laws, or relaxed enforcement and punishment, do. If the government is paying for it, it’s still a government program.  

Here’s hoping that the reduction in use of private prisons leads to a reduction in the use of all prisons.  Let’s save those for truly the dangerous folks.  

Belmont University starts classes on Wednesday. Below I share a few tips for new students. Josh posted a good list earlier this week, but my list is a bit different, perhaps because I teach primarily undergraduate and graduate business students. None of these is new or earthshattering, but, like many simple things, they remain difficult to put into action.

  1. Be Professional. As I often tell my students, you start building your reputation in school. I have declined business opportunities from former classmates because I remembered how they conducted themselves in school. Be on time, be prepared, be thoughtful, and be honest. We should recognize that people change over time and be open to giving second chances, but, unfortunately, not everyone will be quick to change an opinion they form of you while you are in school.
  2. Get to Know Your Classmates and Your Professors. Building relationships is an important aspect of personal and professional life. It is tempting to just put your head down in school and not spend time trying to form strong bonds. An incredible number of students never meet with their professors or only meet with them right before a project or an exam. Professors and classmates are worth getting to know as an end in and of itself, but can also have tangible benefits like better recommendation letters and client referrals.
  3. Use Laptops Carefully, If At All. There is a growing body of research that shows taking handwritten notes is better for learning the information than typing. For law students, I understand that it can be helpful to have your notes typed to jumpstart your outlines, but, at the very least, disable your internet connection while in class. We are not as good at multitasking as we think.
  4. Outline Early and Do Practice Tests. Staying on top of your outlining will give you a bit of time later in the semester to do practice tests. In graduate school, most students can memorize the course materials, but practice applying the material properly is often what propels students into the “excellent” category.
  5. Work Hard, but Schedule Breaks and Take Care of Yourself. It took me a while to learn this, but you actually perform better when you work hard and take care of yourself. For me, this means at least 7 hours of consistently placed sleep, nutritious meals (including breakfast), exercise at least 4x a week, and one day a week detached from work. Even during law school, I consistently put my books down for one 24-hour period during the week (with an exception for the exam period). Some students need to be reminded to work harder; law school should require the work of a full-time job in my opinion. Other students, however, get caught up in the competition and the rigor, and forget the importance of taking care of themselves.

Hope the fall semester is good to all our readers.

There has been a lot of debate online about Ryan Lochte (#LochteGate or #LochMess) and whether he and his swimming friends were actually robbed in Rio after their Olympic events had finished. See here, here, and here for some of the commentary. 

Lawyer Dan Eaton opines that Ryan Lochte is unlikely to go to jail, even if he lied.

While I agree that jail time is unlikely based on the facts available at this time, Lochte’s endorsements could be at risk. Earlier this year, I blogged about morals clauses in endorsement contracts. If Lochte’s contracts include morals clauses (as many do), and if he lied about the robbery, it is possible that he may lose some lucrative endorsements deals. It is still not clear what the motive for lying was (if they did lie). I assume we will learn more in the next few days.   

Update: Speedo and Ralph Lauren dropped (or are not renewing) sponsorship of Ryan Lochte. Spokespeople for both companies cited Lochte’s statements about the occurrence in Rio. My wife let me know that some are now calling Lochte “Swim Shaddy.”