New SEC Commissioner Speaks at Tulane Corporate Law Institute

Newly-confirmed Securities and Exchange Commissioner Robert Jackson Jr. is the headline speaker at Tulane University Law School’s 30th annual Corporate Law Institute (CLI) March 15-16 at the Roosevelt Waldorf Astoria Hotel in downtown New Orleans. The Tulane Corporate Law Institute, now in its 30th year, draws more than 500 leading judges, lawyers, bankers, regulators, and other M&A specialists to New Orleans to discuss emerging trends in dealmaking.  The New York Times has called it “the equivalent of Davos for the rainmaker set.” This year’s two-day conference will also feature remarks by Chief Justice Leo Strine and Justice Collins Seitz, Jr., of the Delaware Supreme Court and Chancellor Andre Bouchard and Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights of the Delaware Court of Chancery. Jackson, formerly a leading corporate law scholar at NYU and Columbia law schools, was sworn in to fill a Democratic seat on the SEC that expires in mid-2019. He has also served as an adviser to senior officials at the Department of the Treasury and in the Office of the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Prior to that government service, he practiced at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he focused on executive compensation. Jackson’s research and advocacy have been heavily focused on protecting average investors in financial transactions, and preventing corporate insiders from manipulating SEC rules and procedures to turn a profit. In a February speech, he argued against inserting mandatory arbitration of shareholder disputes into IPOs. “The idea is that our Division of Corporation Finance will be forced to approve the IPO, stripping shareholders of their right to their day in court—and radically altering the balance between shareholders and corporate insiders,” Jackson said. “I’ve expressed a great deal of skepticism about proposals like these in the past; as I told the Senate in October, I do not have the sense that what we have in corporate America today is too much accountability.” In addition to Jackson’s keynote, the two-day corporate law conference, which draws hundreds of mergers and acquisition litigators, bankers and finance academics to New Orleans each year, will feature panels and guest speakers on topics including global markets, appraisal rights, dealing with activists, media issues and the law, and ethics and professionalism, among others. Following the CLI, Tulane Law School will host the 2nd annual Tulane Corporate Law Conference Saturday, March 17, which will feature more than a dozen of the country’s top scholars in corporate and securities law. The Saturday event is organized by Ann Lipton, the Michael Fleishman Associate Professor of Business Law and Entrepreneurship, and is sponsored through support from the Sher Garner Endowed Fund for the Advancement of Commercial Law and Tulane University’s Murphy Institute. It runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the John Giffen Weinmann Hall, Room 257, 6329 Freret St., and the public is welcome. The event will cover additional topics, including merger issues, corporate democracy, enforcement of securities laws and legal aspects of diversification. The Sher Garner Endowed Fund was set up by Lee Sher (A&S '74, L '76) and Jim Garner (E '86,L '89), devoted Tulanians and founders of Sher Garner Cahill Richter Klein & Hilbert, to support an expansion of Tulane’s scholarly leadership in commercial and business law.   Annually, it underwrites lectures, roundtables and other activities devoted to the study of commercial, business and finance law.