As the various blue-ribbon panels studying the competitiveness of the U.S. financial markets have proposed various regulatory reforms, one recurring theme has been the proposal for auditor liability caps (refer here), a topic that is also under study by the European Commission (refer here). A 2007 paper by Professor Lawrence Cunningham of the
More Options Backdating Settlements and Other Web Notes
Rambus Settles Securities Lawsuit: In a September 7, 2007 press release (here), Rambus announced that it had settled the July 2006 options backdating-related securities class action lawsuit that had been filed against the company and certain of its directors and officers. Rambus has agreed to pay $18 million in exchange for a dismissal
Insider Trading: It Still Matters
There is an understandable tendency to focus on emerging risks and latest trends, because new issues often are the most interesting and because no one wants to get blindsided by something coming over the horizon. But sometimes the old standard issues are the most important ones. Amidst all the hubbub about subprime lending, options backdating,
The Subprime Lending Mess: Blame the Gatekeeper Time Already?
As I noted in prior posts (most recently here), the long-running options backdating blame game eventually morphed into an exercise that included suing the gatekeepers. Even though the subprime mortgage lending litigation machine has only recently gotten cranked up, it has already turned into yet another round of gatekeeper scapegoating. According to a September