An important component of corporate governance is the regulation of significant transactions – mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring. This paper (a chapter in Oxford Handbook on Corporate Law and Governance, forthcoming) reviews how M&A and restructuring are regulated by corporate and...

This paper considers whether the concern that implementation of Directive 2004/25 (Takeover Directive) by the Companies Act 2006 will lead to a culture of litigation that would be detrimental to takeovers is justified, with reference to: (1) the common law approach restricting tactical...

Using a hand-collected sample of 1,739 class actions that challenge the fairness of M&A transactions from the period 2003 through 2012, we examine the effectiveness of plaintiffs' law firms. From out of the 336 law firms in our sample, we determine the top law firms based on their popularity...

This paper examines the effect of disclosure regulation on the takeover market. We study the implementation of a recent European regulation that imposes tighter disclosure requirements regarding the financial and ownership information on public firms. We find a substantial drop in the number of...

We study how globalization has changed the source and aggressiveness of inside trading around the world and identify its determinants. Using a sample of acquisitions of firms in 52 countries announced between 1991 and 2014, we find systematically higher likelihood of insider trading in target...

This paper examines the effect of disclosure regulation on the takeover market. We study the implementation of a recent European regulation that imposes tighter disclosure requirements regarding the financial and ownership information on public firms. We find a substantial drop in the number of...

Over 20 years, M&A contracts have more than doubled in size – from 35 to 88 single-spaced pages in this paper's font. They have also grown significantly in linguistic complexity – from post-graduate “grade 20” to post-doctoral “grade 30”. A substantial portion (lower bound ~20%) of...

This paper uses the EU Takeover Directive as a natural experiment to test when legal harmonization creates value, and to examine the impact of increased entrenchment on investment decisions. The EU promulgated the Takeover Directive in April 2004. The implementation deadline was May 2006. The...

This is a case study of the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch merger. It is based on the article, Fiduciary Exemption for Public Necessity: Shareholder Profit, Public Good, and the Hobson's Choice during a National Crisis, 17 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 661 (2010). The case study analyzes the...