Legal News

In Tribute: Louis Lowenstein, 83, Critic of Wall Street Shenanigans

By Dionne Searcey

Louis Lowenstein, Columbia law professor and former CEO turned prominent critic of financial misconduct on Wall Street, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer.

Lowenstein was a founding partner of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP. He also served a stint as chief executive of the Supermarkets General Corporation. He was chairman of the board of directors of the Columbia Law Review and in the early 1950s, he was editor-in-chief of the publication. He taught courses on corporations, corporate finance, and accounting.

Lowenstein lectured and published extensively on corporate governance, markets and financial markets. Among his works are the books, "What’s Wrong with Wall Street: Short Term Gain and the Absentee Shareholder" and "The Investor’s Dilemma: How Mutual Funds are Betraying Your Trust and What To Do About It."

In a review of "The Investor's Dilemma," which describes a financial scandal in the mutual funds industry, The New York Times called Lowenstein "a heck of an investigative reporter, as well as an astute financial advisor." The story describes him as having a ball tossing “analytical hand grenades at what he says are the destructive forces dominating Wall Street today.”

Lowenstein was also a frequent contributor to this newspaper. He railed against frantic trading and speculation in a 1987 piece in the WSJ saying, "Wall Street needs a tranquilizer…. Only when hyperactive trading is stopped will it become possible to encourage shareholders to act more like the owners of a local factory and less like holders of parimutuel tickets."

In 1998, Lowenstein, along with his wife Helen, endowed a fellowship program at Columbia Law School to encourage and reward students who demonstrated dedication and potential for contributing to public interest law.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 24, 2009 (boomark / email).