“[Impeachment] will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused . . . [T]here will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations…
Year: 2019
Practicing M&A as an Attorney: A Focus on Emerging and Mature Innovative Company Transactions
Interview subjects have asked to remain anonymous in order to feel comfortable providing candid answers. Mergers and acquisitions is a hot practice in business, law, and consulting and one of the most requested banking groups for incoming investment bankers.1 Like any practice or career, however, there are many pros and cons. This blog post will…
Pay to Play: the NCAA Must Use Caution with New Player Compensation Rules
On October 29, 2019, the NCAA announced that it intends to allow collegiate athletes to profit off their own likenesses, opening the door for popular athletes to receive compensation from merchandising and sponsorship opportunities.1. Michael Drake, NCAA board chair and president of Ohio State University, stressed the need for the NCAA to adapt to the…
Assessing the Likelihood of Near-Future Invocations of Section 4A of the Clayton Act
The Department of Justice announced about a year ago that three South Korean energy companies were to plead guilty in a price-fixing scheme that involved supplying energy to US military bases.1 In that announcement, the Department of Justice renewed its willingness to use Section 4A of the Clayton Act to recover treble damages from companies…
Deceptive Trademarks: A Free Speech Issue
Look to your left. Now look to your right. Only one of you will survive. This phrase, which purportedly used to be common in opening addresses at higher-level learning institutions albeit with different wording1 has recently become reality for parts of the statute that establishes rules and procedures for federal registration of trademarks—the Lanham Act…
Pushing the Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion in Law Firms
This October, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Harvard University in a notable and highly covered case about whether Harvard’s admissions process was discriminatory towards Asian American applicants.1 However, this did not resolve the matter completely. The argument for and against race conscious admissions first reached the Supreme Court through a case with the…
PG&E, Chapter 11 & the Public Beneficiary Trust
On January 29, 2019, investor-owned Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”) declared bankruptcy, filing a Chapter 11 reorganization petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.1 This is PG&E’s second bankruptcy petition in as many decades, as the utility also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001.2 For proponents of…
Dual Class Stock Structures: The Need for Shareholder Involvement in Formation and Management
Dual class stock structures have become increasingly popular in the last couple of years. Initial public offerings that feature dual-class stock structures have risen from 4 percent in 2009 to 14 percent in 2018.1 However, their increased usage has also brought on a new wave of skepticism and oversight. This post examines the arguments for…
Mass Arbitration: How Uber’s Own Alternative Dispute Resolution Clauses Were Used Against Them
After coming onto the scene and significantly disrupting the transportation sector around a decade ago, Uber became the center of several controversies.1 One of the central issues was their treatment of their drivers and alleged wage and hour violations.2 Uber presumably thought they had a silver bullet in the form of mandatory arbitration provisions that…
The world is getting thirsty, so will we drink the ocean?
The State of California recently ended its state of emergency related to the state’s longest recorded drought, lasting almost eight years.1 While Executive Order B-40-17 lifted the emergency status, many previous conservation efforts enacted by Executive Order B-37-16 will continue to be in effect.2 This includes a goal of the state to reduce urban water…