California Corporate & Securities Law

The word "law" is ultimately derived from the plural form of the Old Norse word lag which had the sense of laying in order.  The Old Norse word became the Old English word for law, lagu.  Thus, the phrase "laying down the law" essentially means to...

Does California's usury limitations constitute a "strong public policy"?  Seemingly, that question was decided over a half-century ago by the First District Court of Appeal in Ury v. Jewelers Acceptance Corp., 227 Cal. App. 2d 11, 20, 38 Cal. Rptr....

As previously reported in this blog, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to force the international law firm of Covington & Burling, LLP to identify hundreds of its publicly traded clients.  See SEC Demands That...

Those who made it to page 1,080 of H.R. 2617 (the "Consolidated Appropriations Act") will know that Congress has amended Section 15(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt "M&A Brokers" from the requirement to register as brokers...

Relatively few English words both begin and end with the letter "k".  Kiosk is one.  The word kiosk can be traced to the Persian word, kūsht, which refers to a palace or villa.  In Turkish, the word became köşk.  In France, a small structure placed...

In a recent feature published by the Washington Legal Foundation, UCLA Professor Stephen Bainbridge casts a jaundiced eye toward Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster's recent ruling in In re McDonald's Corp. Stockholder Deriv. Litig., C.A. No....

Professor Alexander I. Platt at the University of Kansas School of Law has just released a draft of a forthcoming paper that takes the Securities and Exchange Commission to task for the lack of transparency in its whistleblower program, Going...

In the face of the rising popularity of stakeholderism, Professor Stephen Bainbridge has determined to "stand athwart the tracks of corporate governance and yell 'stop' as the stakeholder capitalism train pulls out of the station".   He is doing so...

Born at the end of the 19th century, Paul Mason worked for the California legislature and Governor Goodwin Knight.  In 1935, he published Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, which is commonly known as Mason's Manual.  After Mr. Mason's death in...