ABA Section of Business Law
Business Law Today
September/October, 1997
Saving billions for investors, a penny at a time: An SEC commissioner's views on why we should trade in decimals
By Steven M.H. Wallman
American stock markets must get out of fractions and into decimals. The markets would be more understandable to U.S. investors and would move into the way trading is being done in most other places in the global economy. Go for dollars and cents.
An update on hedge funds: A new law makes these investments more attractive
By Stephen M. Schultz and Steven B. Nadel
President Clinton signed a law on Oct. 11, 1996 that mandates certain national standards for broker-dealers. It will create a capital base for private investment funds and ease their regulatory burden, promoting the offering of more investment opportunities for potential investors in hedge funds. This article is an update to one the authors wrote in the May-June 1996 Business Law Today.
Those third-party opinions: Can loan-transaction costs be reduced?
By David M. Mason and Debra H. Snider
This article concerns a re-thinking of the contents of third-party legal opinions in commercial loan transactions. The opinion is one rendered by the borrower's lawyer about a loan -- covering such areas as corporate authority (to take out the loan), enforceability, due diligence, etc. Some things are needed in such opinions, but others aren't.
A breath of fresh air for bankruptcy: An uncommon woman finds the Common Man
By Gina Chon
This profile of Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren shows a woman who through her teaching and writing is helping to put a human face on the problem of bankruptcy. She's also an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission.
When less is more -- trouble: The downside of downsizing environmental programs
By Steven J. Koorse
Environmental liability is insidious -- liability will depend on government inspections, how an agency decides to respond to a violation, etc. The goal of "downsizing" is a leaner, more effective program. But what does a company need to keep in mind when evaluating its environmental-compliance program? Beware the pitfalls of cutting too much too fast.
Taxing? Hardly: Locating a business in a tax-free jurisdiction
By Harold I. Steinbach and Heath H. Grayson
Where should a company's operations be based? How about a foreign tax haven? You'll need one that imposes little or no income tax, has little political unrest, good phone lines, a good airport, etc. The authors take a look at the Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.
A lawyer in a world without law: An American's odyssey in Bulgaria
By Katherine J. Wilkinson
Without law, the lawyer's role is greatly diminished. How'd you like to practice in a society like that? In Bulgaria in the post-Communist world, corruption is rampant, inflation is 311 percent and a rule of law has yet to be established. How do those who obey the law compete with those who don't? Can business really be done where there's no framework for transactions? The lesson is being glad for what you have in the good ol' U.S. of A.