Corporate Governance

Three good articles from the WSJ--all on one page....

Posted on May 20, 2009
Three I-told-you-so moments (here, here, and here). Enjoy!

My nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on May 07, 2009
Personally, I'd love to see U.S. District Court Judge Lee Rosenthal (see here) nominated. She's everything I'd want in a USSC Justice: she's exceptionally intelligent & experienced; she's not an ideologue (on either side of the spectrum); she writes like a dream; and she's a thoughtful jurist.

Our latest take on Nevada's budget crisis

Posted on May 04, 2009
We still love it here, but we're concerned about Nevada's future (see here for yesterday's op-ed in the Las Vegas Sun). Of course, not everyone thinks that we should wait until retirement to leave. My University email inbox had this, um, testy response from a Mr...

The death of the billable hour continues

Posted on April 28, 2009
This morning's ABA Journal post on the percentage of ACC-member GCs who dislike the billable hours system (see here) continues the slow demise of the billable hour. Over time, the profession is going to have to come up with viable alternatives that compensate lawyers fairly but still encourage efficiency in representation.

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Does anyone know how to fix Microsoft Word for Mac and the creation of .doc.hqx files

Posted on April 27, 2009
My Microsoft Office for Mac keeps turning my .doc documents into .doc.hqx documents that are unreadable. Does anyone have any solutions? Thanks!

Reason #1,029,203,245 why I love NASA

Posted on April 24, 2009
Our buddy Randy just sent us this info, tied into yesterday's Earth Day celebration:Celebrating 2009 Earth Day: NASA is Leading the GreeningPeople around the world set aside Earth Day each year to reflect on the beauty, abundance and health of our home planet...

And for an interesting essay on BigLaw....

Posted on April 09, 2009
See here.

Two of the best opinion pieces published in the last few weeks

Posted on April 08, 2009
Jake DeSantis's A.I.G. resignation letter (here) and Nassim Nicholas Taleb's piece in this morning's Financial Times, listing ten ways to Black-Swan-Proof our world (here). As an aside, Taleb teaches at NYU's Polytechnic Institute, which was (before its affiliation change) one of my dad's alma maters.

It's a textbook! It's a weapon!

Posted on March 23, 2009
Richard Pachter of the Miami Herald has this to say (here) about our second edition of the Enron book. Although he missed a letter of Jeff Van Niel's last name (Jeff is NOT to be confused with the Knights who say "Ni!"), my favorite part of the (very short) review was his suggestion that "[i]f they ever decide to throw the book at Madoff or any of the other financial criminals, this 1,200-page-plus tome is the one I'd heave...

A horrifying website--please take time to sign this petition

Posted on March 17, 2009
My dad and my friend Seymour called my attention to this site, jewwatch.com, I was appalled. There's a petition to remove the site from Google:To: Google.comWhen performing a search for the word "Jew" on google.. the first result is a site that has been notorious for being anti-Semitic...

DePaul's upcoming Biz & Comm L J Symposium

Posted on March 10, 2009
Seventh Annual DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal SymposiumInto the Sunset: Bankruptcy as Scriptwriter of the Dénouement of Financial DistressThursday, April 16, 200910:30 a.m. ? 5:00 p.m.Westin Michigan Avenue909 North Michigan AvenueChicago, Illinois For Better or Worse: Chapter 11 in the Post-BAPCPA DownturnBAPCPA, the 2005 Bankruptcy Code overhaul, brought some significant changes to corporate reorganization, leading some to dub Chapter 11 as the "National Foreclosure Act...

And another great idea for the economy

Posted on March 08, 2009
In response to this post (here), one of our best friends suggested the following:Here's my plan: (1) stimulate the economy by increasing federal monies available to state universities -- I received a heck of an education and now pay back by working and paying taxes -- others will do the same - give a person fish and they eat one meal, teach them to fish and they eat for the rest of their lives; (2) stimulate the economy by investing in our infrastructure -- roads, railroads, etc...

BRAVO, Race to the Bottom Blog!

Posted on March 06, 2009
The Race to the Bottom (http://www.theracetothebottom.org/home/covering-churchill-v-university-of-colorado.html) is going to cover the trial of Ward Churchill, the CU Professor who made critical comments about the US in connection with 9/11.Here's the info, straight from my colleagues at Race to the Bottom:Students from the Race to the Bottom and the Student Employment Law Association at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and faculty from the College of Law and the Daniels College of Business, will be providing daily coverage of the suit brought by Ward Churchill, a former tenured faculty member in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, against the University of Colorado...

A hat tip to John D. Geanakoplos and Susan P. Koniak

Posted on March 05, 2009

The Van Niel mortgage proposal

Posted on March 04, 2009

Can ANYONE in Las Vegas reach Rowlands News Service?

Posted on March 03, 2009

Dan Filler's very cogent observations on recent big firm layoffs

Posted on February 27, 2009

Congrats to Rice U students Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel!

Posted on February 23, 2009
Rice University students Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel won the right to represent mtvU at last night's Academy Awards. BRAVO, Faheem and Anish! For the video that won them that coveted spot, see here.

My letter to the Nevada Legislature

Posted on February 23, 2009
Each of us can weigh in on Nevada's budget. Here's a text version of what I've sent.To my colleagues in the Nevada Legislature:I know that today?s economic climate is exceptionally challenging, and my thoughts are with you as you navigate toward a reasonable budget for our state...

Our second edition of the Enron book (Enron and Other Corporate Scandals: The Corporate Scandal Reader, 2d) is on Amazon now.

Posted on February 22, 2009
Jeff did the cover art (see here), and the link is here.

I am, apparently, still a "bargain."

Posted on February 22, 2009
See here.

Let's play "connect the dots"

Posted on February 22, 2009
I read these three pieces in today's local paper: Gibbons'[s] budget would kill higher education (here), Drop, drop, drop . . . . (here), and Kill Yucca, then get going on the rest of our problems (here). What links them?Well, Nevada's economy is pretty awful right now, and as things stand, higher education cuts are poised to bear the brunt of Nevada's attempt to balance the budget (the first piece)...

Why I think that the housing portion of the bailout misses the boat

Posted on February 20, 2009
My piece today in JURIST (here). Would love your thoughts. Better yet, weigh in at www.recovery.gov. Thanks!

Want to see my personal trainer, Jeff Monroe, and his wife, Priscila Monroe, in action?

Posted on February 20, 2009
Click here and then click on "guests."

PLEASE SEND THESE TWO RICE U STUDENTS TO THE OSCARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on February 19, 2009
I just watched this video (here), where two Rice University students, Faheem Ahmed and Anish Patel, are finalists to be correspondents for MTV-U at the Oscars on Sunday night. The video cracked me up, and these two Owls deserve to be chosen. Please vote!

Academics whose actions disappoint me more than I can say.

Posted on February 18, 2009
See here for the list of academics who have signed on to a petition of a boycott of Israel. What's going on in the Middle East is complicated, and I'm not saying that Israel is perfect, by any means. But my guess is that a lot of these academics are paying attention only to one side of the story, which is never a good thing for an academic to do.

Today's stories on mortgages

Posted on February 18, 2009
On forcing banks to prove they hold the mortgage: see here. On courts that process thousands of foreclosures a day: see here.Some of the parameters of the stimulus's changes for mortgages: see here. Some of the problems with the changes: see here.

My piece today on JURIST

Posted on February 17, 2009
See here. A special thanks to Bernard Hibbitts for publishing it!

Verified by Visa = locked into infinite loop

Posted on February 12, 2009
My hubby has had a problem w/Verified by Visa that started out as a good sign, not a bad one. He had just made a large purchase, followed by a smaller purchase from the same company, and the company from which he had purchased checked to make sure that his card hadn't been stolen...

My new boycott list....

Posted on February 03, 2009
For all of those product manufacturers who have automatic spammers put in random comments throughout my blog, I've created a boycott list. If you post random crud on my blog, I'll add you to this list.Here are the first two:WOW GOLDCHANTIXPlease boycott these products...

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