The IMF recently released its Global Financial Stability Report April 2022.  The Executive Summary provides an informative overview of the financial risks facing markets in these turbulent times.  I was particularly interested in Box 1.1 of the Report: Extreme Volatility in Commodities: The Nickel Trading Suspension.  For those readers who might be unaware, the London Metal Exchange (LME) halted nickel trading “on March 8 after prices doubled over the course of a day to a record $100,000 (£76,200) a tonne”  and cancelled all nickel transactions that day.  Nickel is a key metal for electric car batteries.  Not surprisingly, the LME’s actions proved controversial and are now the subject of several regulatory investigations.  As the end of the Executive Summary highlights: “Recent measures taken in markets and exchanges in response to elevated volatility in commodity prices highlight the need for regulators to examine the broader implications, including exchange governance mechanisms, resiliency of trading systems, concentration of risk, margin setting, and trading transparency in exchange and over-the-counter markets” (p. xiv).    

Mainelaw_logo-e1447856548945

 

 

 

 

The University of Maine School of Law, in the coastal city of Portland, Maine, invites applications for a one- or two-semester position as a visiting professor during the 2022-2023 academic year. Specific curricular needs include Property, Real Estate Transactions, and Land Use. The visiting appointment may be at the Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, or Professor of Practice level. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Members of minority groups, women, and others whose background would contribute to the
diversity of the Law School are encouraged to apply.

Required: Applicants must possess a J. D. degree or its equivalent, an excellent academic record, and a record or promise of successful teaching and student mentoring, including an ability and willingness to incorporate innovative teaching approaches into the curriculum.

Applications must be submitted to the University of Maine System Hire Touch portal at: https://maine.hiretouch.com/admin/jobs/show.cfm?jobID=75546. You will need to create an applicant profile, locate the Visiting Professor of Law position in Hire Touch, and complete an application. Please upload a cover letter which fully describes your qualifications and experiences with specific reference to the required and preferred qualifications, your resume or c.v., and contact information for three professional references. You will also need to complete the affirmative action survey, the self-identification of disability form, and the self-identification of veteran status form.

Review of applications will begin immediately. To ensure full consideration, we encourage you to submit materials by May 15, 2022. You may email any questions to mainelawsearch@maine.edu. Applications, however, must be submitted via Hire Touch.

Appropriate background screening will be conducted for the successful candidate.

The University of Maine System is an EEO/AA employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

I’m doing what may seem crazy to some- teaching Business Associations to 1Ls. I have a group of 65 motivated students who have an interest in business and voluntarily chose to take the hardest possible elective with one of the hardest possible professors. But wait, there’s more. I’m cramming a 4-credit class into 3 credits. These students, some of whom are  learning the rule against perpetuities in Property and the battle of the forms in Contracts while learning the business judgment rule, are clearly masochists. 

If you’re a professor or a student, you’re coming close to the end of the semester and you’re trying to cram everything in. Enter Elon Musk. 

I told them to just skim Basic v. Levenson and instead we used Rasella v. Musk, the case brought by investors claiming fraud on the market. Coincidentally, my students were already reading In Re Tesla Motors, Inc. Stockholder Litigation because it was in their textbook to illustrate the concept of a controlling shareholder. Elon’s pursuit of Twitter allowed me to use that company’s 2022 proxy statement and ask them why Twitter would choose to be “for” a proposal to declassify its board, given all that’s going on. Perhaps that vote will be moot by the time the shareholder’s meeting happens at the end of May. The Twitter 8-K provides a great illustration of the real-time filings that need to take place under the securities laws, in this case due to the implementation of a poison pill. Elon’s Love Me Tender tweet provides a fun way to take about tender offers. How will the Twitter board fulfill it’s Revlon duties? So much to discuss and so little time. But the shenanigans have made teaching and learning about these issues more fun. And who knew so many of my students held Twitter and Tesla stock?

I’ve used the Musk saga for my business and human rights class too. I had attended the Emerge Americas conference earlier in the week and Alex Ohanian, billionaire founder of Reddit, venture capitalist, and Serena Williams’ husband, had to walk a fine line when answering questions about Musk from the CNBC reporter. The line that stuck out to me was his admonition that running a social media company is like being a head of state with the level of responsibility. I decided to bring this up on the last day of my business and human rights class because I was doing an overview of what we had learned during the semester. As I turned to my slide about the role of tech companies in society, we ended up in a 30 minute debate in class about what Musk’s potential ownership of Twitter could mean for democracy and human rights around the world. Interestingly, the class seemed almost evenly split in their views. While my business associations students are looking at the issue in a more straightforward manner as a vehicle to learn about key concepts (with some asking for investment advice as well, which I refused), my business and human rights students had a much more visceral reaction. 

Elon is a gift that keeps on giving for professors. He’s a blessing because he’s bringing concepts to life at a time in the semester where we are all mentally and physically exhausted. Depending on who you talk to in my BHR class and in some quarters of the media, he’s also a curse.

All I know is that I don’t know how I’ll top this semester for real-world, just-in-time application.

Thanks, Elon.

Signed,

A tired but newly energized professor who plans to assign Ann Lipton’s excellent Musk tweets as homework. 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess we’re talking about Elon Musk again.

If you’re like me, you’re kind of gratified by the general public’s new fascination with corporate law, but, of course, to those of us who live here, it’s obvious that while all of the maneuvering so far is colorful, it’s bog standard legally, and the Twitter board’s actions in adopting a poison pill were not only totally unremarkable, but arguably necessitated by their fiduciary duties.  (So that they would have time to explore other alternatives; so that they could assess the seriousness of Musk’s offer and attempt to negotiate a higher one; so that they could prevent Musk from obtaining control – or sufficient control to block superior alternatives – simply through open market purchases, etc).  Nonetheless, that has not prevented a lot of people who should know better from saying silly things:

 

 

(for that last, maybe Musk is thinking of his own potential exposures for fiduciary duty claims)

That said, it cannot be denied that the issue of Musk’s potential control of Twitter – and the changes he may make to content moderation – are of great political importance.  Musk has suggested that he would like to loosen content restrictions, and several conservatives, who argue that their views are censored on Twitter, have cheered Musk’s proposal for that reason alone.  Ron DeSantis, who has been aggressively leaning into the culture wars, has gone so far as to declare that not only has the Twitter board violated its duties by resisting Musk’s proposal, but that he hopes to cause Florida’s state pension fund – which is invested in Twitter – to sue. 

All of which spotlights a couple of fairly basic things about corporate law, but they are worth teasing out.

First, corporate law matters for reasons that go beyond finance; for good or for ill, whoever has control over Twitter will also have a great deal of control over the global political discourse.  That inescapable fact makes the argument for shareholder primacy – that corporate law should only concern itself with investor welfare – ring somewhat hollow. 

Second, though, and in some degree of tension with the first, I’ve joked here before about Delaware controlling the world, but part of the reason that academics and others have tolerated and/or championed Delaware’s outsized influence is because it’s probably the closest thing we will have to a neutral.   It would go too far to say Delaware law is apolitical – it does, in fact, have a shareholder-centric focus, which elevates capital above other constituencies – but we can trust that whatever disputes arise over Musk’s bid for Twitter, they will be litigated according to familiar legal standards that were not developed to appease any particular constituency on the right-left spectrum.

Update: And now congressional Republicans are demanding that the Twitter board preserve all communications pertaining to Musk’s offer, which… pretty much proves my point.

As reported by The American Civil Rights Project (here):

After months of pressure from concerned stockholders, Coca-Cola’s General Counsel Monica Howard Douglas recently let it be known that the illegal discriminatory outside-counsel policies Coke announced with great fanfare last year “have not been and are not policy of the company.” …

In January 2021, Douglas’s predecessor, Bradley Gayton, published the policies in a highly publicized open letter addressed to “U.S. Firms Supporting The Coca-Cola Company.” Under it, Coke’s law firms were required to staff Coke matters so that that “diverse” attorneys performed at least 30% of all hours billed, with “Black attorneys” performing “at least half [15%] of that amount” …. The letter stated that non-compliance for two successive quarters “will result” in Coke’s unilateral reduction of a firm’s future legal fees and that all future consideration for both new legal work and inclusion in Coke’s preferred-vendor list would turn on compliance….

[T]he ACR Project wrote to Coke, its officers, and its directors, on behalf of several shareholders, demanding the public retraction of the discriminatory policies. If Coke had refused, these shareholders would hold Coke’s officers and directors personally liable for breaching their fiduciary duties to investors.

After months of foot dragging, Ms. Douglas responded with her assurance that the discriminatory policies are not now and never have been company policy.

AALS Professional Responsibility Section – 2023 Annual Meeting New Voices

The AALS Professional Responsibility Section invites papers for its program “2023 New Voices Workshop.” The goal of this audience interactive workshop is to provide a forum for new voices and new ideas related to professional responsibility (PR), broadly defined. Many scholars might address PR without realizing it. We are interested in your potential contributions whether you are an evidence scholar writing about the attorney-client privilege, a feminist interested in gender dynamics that affect lawyering, a critical race scholar commenting on how power plays out in legal systems, an ethicist exploring the moral foundations of the rules governing lawyering, or something entirely different. Toward that end, we encourage you to submit a proposal even if you are pursuing scholarship on PR for the first time, even if you question whether your ideas really do relate to PR, and even if you are reticent to submit for some other reason. 

The selected papers will be presented at the AALS Annual Meeting in January of 2023

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

The Workshop will be an opportunity to nurture the growth of a broad scholarly community in the field of Professional Responsibility and Legal Ethics. As such, it is a place to take risks and develop high quality work—test ideas, work out issues in drafts and dialogue with academics doing interesting and cutting-edge scholarship.

We welcome consideration of works in different formats and stages of production.

Depending on the stage of your work, the workshop format will differ.

  • Some authors may have a full draft paper or substantial outline ready for distribution in advance of the conference. In that case, papers will be allocated sufficient time for authors and participants to thoroughly explore each work. The expectation is that all participants will read and prepare comments on fellow participants’ work prior to the conference.
  • For early stage ideas, authors may only have an abstract or one-page treatment for distribution and discussion. In that context, authors and participants will brainstorm around each idea much more briefly than in a typical workshop, making space for a larger number of comments in each session.

Workshop groups will include senior scholars in the field who will aid in the discussion of the pieces and provide feedback. Successful papers and topics, depending on their stage of development, should engage with the scholarly literature and make a meaningful original contribution to the fields of professional responsibility and legal ethics, broadly defined. The format will be determined based on the submissions received and accepted

ELIGIBILITY: Full-time faculty members of AALS member law schools are eligible to submit papers. Preference will be given to junior scholars. Pursuant to AALS rules, faculty at fee-paid law schools, foreign faculty, adjunct and visiting faculty (without a full-time position at an AALS member law school), graduate students, fellows, and non-law school faculty are not eligible to submit. Please note that all faculty members presenting at the program are responsible for paying their own annual meeting registration fee and travel expenses.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

There is no formal requirement as to the form or length of proposals. Abstracts are welcome.  Please email submissions to Executive Committee Member, Sande Buhai on or before September 23, 2022. The title of the email submission should read: “Submission – AALS PR New Voices Program 2023.”

Position Number: 350124 / 20-256
Apply to: http://apply.interfolio.com/105805

Duquesne University School of Law, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, invites applications and nominations for a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law to teach during the 2022-2023 academic year. This position is a nine-month visiting position, beginning in the summer of 2022 with the possibility of one additional nine-month term. The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching three courses: one course during the fall semester and two courses the spring semester. The successful candidate will have ample time to focus on scholarship, be afforded to the Law School’s library and related resources, have no administrative or faculty committee duties.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Our curricular needs include: Business Associations, Property, Contracts, Emerging Technologies, Intellectual Property, Health Law, and related elective courses. Candidates must be available to teach in-person, although the public health situation may require occasional remote and/or hyflex teaching.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Juris Doctor from an ABA-accredited law school.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience teaching in legal education.

Evidence of significant practical experience in an area of curricular need.

Alternately, the successful candidate may possess any equivalent combination of experience and training, which provides the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform the essential job functions. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Commitment to the University’s values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and recognition of the importance of treating each individual with dignity and respect consistent with the University’s Mission. Demonstrated experience with, and understanding of, the broad diversity of the University community (students, faculty, staff and others).

Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with the University Community.

Ability and willingness to contribute actively to the mission of the University and to respect the Spiritan Catholic identity of Duquesne University. The mission is implemented through a commitment to academic excellence, a spirit of service, moral and spiritual values, sensitivity to world concerns, and an ecumenical campus community.

As a condition of employment, Duquesne University requires all new employees -full-time and part-time, including adjunct faculty-to get a COVID-19 vaccine and provide proof of their vaccination upon commencement of employment.

New employees requesting a religious or documented medical exemption from the vaccine must complete and submit a Duquesne University exemption request form for review and approval. To receive the appropriate exemption request form, contact hrservices@duq.edu. Employees with approved exemptions will be required to be tested on a regular basis.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Catholic in its mission and ecumenical in spirit, Duquesne University values equality of opportunity as an educational institution and as an employer. We aspire to attract and sustain a diverse faculty that reflects contemporary society, serves our academic goals that enriches our campus community. We particularly encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups.

We invite applicants for this position to learn more about our University and its Spiritan heritage by visiting our Mission Statement. http://www.duq.edu/about/mission-and-identity/mission-statement. Those invited to campus for an interview may be asked about ways in which they see their talents contributing to the continued growth of our community and furthering its mission.

Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Duquesne University uses Interfolio to collect all faculty job applications electronically. Applicants should submit a letter of intent, a curriculum vitae, and contact information for three professional references via Interfolio. The letter of intent should include comments on ability to teach in flexible environments, including online, hybrid, and in-person classroom settings. Applicants are encouraged to describe in their letter of intent how their scholarship contributes to building and supporting a diverse and inclusive community. Applicants with questions about the position may contact Tara Willke at 412.396.2637 or willket@duq.edu.

Duquesne University was founded in 1878 by its sponsoring religious community, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Duquesne University is Catholic in mission and ecumenical in spirit. Motivated by its Catholic identity, Duquesne values equality of opportunity both as an educational institution and as an employer.

The following comes to us from the Law & Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

The Law & Economics Center is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications to the Workshop for Law Professors on Teaching Capitalism. This program will be held at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort and Spa in Beaver Creek, Colorado with attendees arriving on Sunday, July 10 and departing on Thursday, July 14.

The Workshop for Law Professors on Teaching Capitalism is a five-day program that will deepen law professors’ understanding of the fundamentals of capitalism, educate the participants in methods and techniques for teaching about capitalism as a stand-alone course in their own law schools, and help guide these professors in ways to integrate lessons learned from capitalism and discussions around the topic into their subject-specific doctrinal courses like corporations, constitutional law, or on common law subjects. The workshop is designed to enrich the curricula of law schools across the country by encouraging a more robust discussion of capitalism and its relationship with the law in courses, by giving its attendees the tools necessary to take this instructional guidance back to their home institutions.  Across 9 lectures (and a film night), law professors will learn from the leading experts on the pedagogy of teaching capitalism and from other key scholars in the subjects covered.

Workshop Faculty Includes:

George Priest (Yale Law School)

Mike Munger (Duke University)

Donald Boudreaux (George Mason University)

Jim Huffman (Lewis & Clark Law School)

The LEC offers a $1,000 honorarium for successful completion of the program (from which attendees are expected to cover their own travel and incidental expenses).

To Apply, Please Visit: https://cvent.me/DXGWXZ

On Friday, I have the honor and pleasure of presenting a continuing legal education session for the Tennessee Bar Association with Dean Matt Lyon from the LMU Duncan School of Law.  Our topic?  Partner freeze-outs–situations in which a co-venturer in a business recognized as a partnership is excluded from the business by their fellow co-venturers.  This exclusion often occurs through or involves the formation of a limited liability entity, typically a corporation or limited liability company, to conduct the operations of the business going forward.  That new business entity does not include one of the initial co-venturers.  We have titled our session “No Partner Left Behind:Organizing a Limited Liability Entity for a Pre-existing Business Venture.”

I truly enjoy the judicial opinions in this area.  You probably know some of them.  Holmes v. Lerner may be one of the better known cases in this space.  But there are others.  Some of the claims in these cases, like the claims in Holmes v. Lerner, stem from co-venturers involved in a de facto partnership–a venture recognized under statutory law as a partnership for which there is no express written acknowledgment of partnership.  Entrepreneurs beware!

The partnership freeze-out genre of judicial opinions is related to the old chestnut Meinhard v. Salmon, a partnership opportunity case relating to the exclusion of a “coadventurer” from a subsequent leasehold for the property that had been the subject of the co-venturers original joint venture.  These judicial opinions also can be connected to the more recent, interesting, and aberrant Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. v. Enter. Prod. Partners, L.P., in which the court finds that “[a]n agreement not to be partners unless certain conditions are met will ordinarily be conclusive on the issue of partnership formation as between the parties,” foreclosing an argument made by one of the parties to the agreement that a partnership was nonetheless formed by conduct under the statutory definition.

It turns out that Matt and I are not the only folks intrigued by these cases.  Twenty-three years ago, Frank Gevurtz wrote a nifty article on partner freeze-outs: Franklin A. Gevurtz, Preventing Partnership Freeze-Outs, 40 MERCER L. REV. 535 (1989).  Ultimately, Frank focuses in on planning and drafting ideas as a means of avoiding litigation in this area.  Like Frank, Matt and I offer lawyering points emanating from what we learned in reviewing judicial opinions of this kind.  Of course, these law practice points require that co-venturers be aware of the creation of a partnership in the first place.  These cases certainly make for animated discussions in entrepreneurship and other small business settings and are especially great fodder for discussion in a business associations law course.

I really enjoyed Matthew Wansley’s new paper, Moonshots, forthcoming in the Columbia Business Review.  He focuses on the complicated incentives involved in performing “moonshot” research, that is, highly risky projects that could dramatically advance a field, but that will take years to develop.  He argues that the venture carveout structure – whereby a startup has public company parents alongside other private investors, and employee incentive ownership, is designed to mitigate the various conflicts and agency costs that would exist among the players, and uses autonomous driving as the major case study.

I haven’t seen much about corporate investment in outside entities – though I gather there has been more written in the business literature, the only other legal paper I’m familiar with is Jennifer Fan’s Catching Disruptions: Regulating Corporate Venture Capital, 2018 Colum. Bus. L. Rev. 341, which offers a detailed descriptive account of how corporate venture capital functions and how it differs from traditional venture capital.  But the two papers together convince me that this is a phenomenon that needs more attention in the legal scholarship.