Lawyers are moral actors deeply embedded in the social and political orders to the principles of which they owe a high degree of fidelity. A lawyer's ethical obligations are grounded in that basic fidelity and they may advance their client's interests only consistent with this higher duty. Thus,...

IPOs with underwriters that retain an elite law firm exhibit a lower average first-day return. This empirical pattern remains after controlling for an extensive set of proxies associated with existing explanations of IPO initial returns. We rationalize this finding with a pre-IPO pricing model,...

This paper explores a rule introduced by the parent regulator of legal services in England & Wales, the Legal Services Board, which requires the publication of diversity data from its daughter regulators and their respective regulated communities. This paper comments on the introduction of the...

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of issuing businesses engaging reputed law firms on the extent of underpricing in developing IPO markets. The consequences of involving prestigious lawyers in underpricing IPO businesses are not really understood from a global viewpoint due...

Recent scandals have brought rankings to the forefront of the legal profession. Several of the most prestigious academic institutions have withdrawn from being ranked, citing the problematic nature of the rankings. However, rankings persist for both legal academics and practice, and there is...

We investigate the relationship between pricing in an initial public offering (IPO) and the prestige of the participating underwriters' law firm. We hypothesize law firm quality affects how law firms perform their obligations in IPOs - more prestigious law firms acting more independently....