Research Updates AY2023-2024

From UC Law SF Faculty

Abe Cable‘s article titled Stock Options of Adhesion was accepted for publication in the Journal of Corporation Law. The article argues that a competitive market for startup talent helps equity compensation contracts evolve in employee-friendly ways, even when employees do not actively negotiate or even understand their agreements. His prior article titled Regulating Democratized Investing, originally published in the Ohio State Law Journal, was selected for the Securities Law Review, an annual anthology of articles deemed “worthy of a wider audience.” Abe also contributed a piece titled Psychic Income & Democratized Investing to a symposium issue of the Colorado Technology Law Journal focused on crowdfunding. His current project examines the structure of voting agreements in venture capital financings.

John Crawford has an article forthcoming in the William & Mary Business Law Review titled A Threshold Test for Fed Activism. He recently published The Dollar Dilemma: Hegemony, Control, and the Dollar’s International Role in the Virgina Law & Business Review, examining the risks created by the offshore U.S. dollar market, along with the tradeoffs involved in potential reforms to address those risks. His current research project focuses on the use and misuse of financial sanctions as a tool of U.S. law enforcement and coercive diplomacy.

Jodi Short published Regulatory Managerialism as Gaslighting Government in Law & Contemporary Problems, exploring the uneven ways that management theory gets applied to government and businesses. It shows how the frequent demand that government behave more like a business is undercut by the failure to provide government regulators with the full panoply of tools managers rely on to run a successful business. She also published Major Questions About Presidentialism: Untangling the “Chain of Dependence” Across Administrative Law in the Boston College Law Review, which seeks greater coherence in an area of administrative law doctrine that threatens to destabilize the business environment for many regulated companies.

Emily Strauss’ short piece, Standing and Snitches, which evaluates challenges to the SEC’s whistleblower rules, was accepted to The Business Lawyer. Her prior article, Is Everything Securities Fraud?, was included in the list of the top ten corporate and securities law articles of 2023 (corporate and securities scholars are polled every year to compile the list). The article also has been selected to be reprinted in the Securities Law Review, an annual anthology of articles deemed “worthy of a wider audience.” Her prior article, Suing SPACs, was selected for republication in the Corporate Practice Commentator, a periodical “designed to bring to corporate lawyers and business executives’ reliable information on recent development and new thinking in the field of corporation law and practice.” Her current project investigates the role of gatekeeper liability under the Securities Act for IPOs.

Evan Epstein was named one of the most influential leaders in corporate governance by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as part of the 2023 NACD Directorship 100™. He also recently published his 141st episode of the Boardroom Governance Podcast. His guests include corporate governance experts including scholars, practitioners, directors and investors. He has also written over 53 newsletter editions chronicling the latest corporate governance trends in Silicon Valley and beyond in his Boardroom Governance Newsletter. He was a featured speaker in several corporate governance programs throughout the US and internationally, including at the University of Toronto, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Council of Institutional Investors Summit, the EY Annual Governance Summit, the GP Academy by BDC Capital (Canada), CESA Business School (Colombia), among many other forums.