Magna Carta Friday: A Definitive Article About A Definite Article

In English, we have two articles - "the" is the definite article and "a/an" is the indefinite article. Latin, on the other hand, lacks articles, definite or indefinite. Indeed, the great first century Roman rhetorician Marcus Fabius Quintilianus...

DBO Warns Victims Not To Be Victimized Twice

Recently, the Department of Business Oversight issued the following warning:

Is The SEC's Notice Of Internet Availability Of Proxy Materials Form Gender Biased?

The idea that men won't ask for directions is a staple of many jokes.  I don't know whether this is fact or urban myth.  However, a few years back the Princeton University Press published an entire book on the subject. In my former career as a...

What, If Anything, Is The Attorney General's Office Hiding?

In January, I decided to update an earlier post regarding the number of calls made to the California Attorney General's hotline mandated by Labor Code Section 1102.7. A few years earlier, I had published these data for the years from 2004 to 2010....

I understand Chair, Chairperson, Chairman and Chairwoman But Not Chairwomen of the Board

In February, I posted this little rumination on the origin of the term "chairman". Then I came across SB 351 introduced late last month by the California Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions. Currently, Sections 5213, 7213 and 9213...

Oxfam America Argues SEC Has "Unlawfully Withheld And Unreasonably Delayed" Resource Extraction Rule

I've often wished that my legal acumen could be judged by the same standard as professional baseball players. If that were the case, I could be wrong nearly 60% of the time and yet be considered one of the greatest legal mavens of all time. I would...

Bill Would Authorize Payments For Commercial Loan Referrals

California State Senator Marty Block has introduced a bill, SB 197, that would authorize a licensed finance lender to compensate an unlicensed person or company in connection with the referral of one or more prospective borrowers to the licensee for...

Are LLC Interests Securities in California?

Does California consider membership interests in a limited liability company to be securities?  There are two correct answers to this question - yes and no. As I discussed a few years back, the California Corporate Securities Law preceded even the...

Does Former Officer Have An Obligation To Turn Over Whistleblower Award?

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced "a whistleblower award payout between $475,000 and $575,000 to a former company officer who reported original, high-quality information about a securities fraud that resulted in an SEC...