Bite-Sized Business Law
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Get a breakdown of the top stories in business law from industry leaders on the front lines with Bite-Sized Business Law. Host Amy Martella takes a closer look at the latest corporate happenings through interviews with the attorneys, legal experts, public figures, and scholars behind the news to distill business law’s biggest stories into bite-sized portions.
This is your chance to go further into the world of business law and stay up to date with legal cases and industry trends.
Corporations impact us all, leading changes that extend far beyond business to shape the economy, public policy, technology, and beyond. Looking at the big picture, Amy discusses not only the underlying issues in business ethics and legal cases leading the biggest stories but also sparks thought-provoking discussions on where the law should be headed.
Amy is the Executive Director of the Corporate Law Center at Fordham University School of Law. Her background ranges from big law to government to tech startups, allowing her to offer an insider’s perspective of the issues that shape corporate actions, large and small. Covering crypto regulation to securities fraud, AI’s impact to Elon Musk’s pay package, Bite-Sized Business Law covers it all with guests of varying viewpoints to provide the nuanced analysis needed to tackle complex problems.
Whether you're looking for the latest in legal insight on intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, business ethics or legal cases in the business law world, you’ll find it here. Enjoying a thoughtful perspective on the news stories of the moment, Bite-Sized Business Law examines big issues and delivers them in small doses.
Bite-Sized Business Law is a project by the Corporate Law Center at Fordham Law. The Center serves as a hub for scholars, professionals, policymakers, and students to engage in the study, discussion, and debate of current issues in corporate law. The Center focuses on aspects of corporate law, corporate compliance, antitrust law, and securities regulation. Through initiatives like the Mergers and Acquisitions seminar and the Securities Litigation and Arbitration Clinic, students actively engage in real-world research and cases, bridging the gap between classroom learning and practical application in the legal field.
Bite-Sized Business Law
Fields of Gold: Inside South Dakota’s Trust Empire
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South Dakota has turned itself into the ‘trust fund capital’ of America, and the system is thriving financially. Some proponents say the South Dakota trust fund regime is absolutely necessary for those with mega-wealth, but others argue that it’s eroding the American tax base, enabling the hollowing out of the middle class, and defying the trust Teddy Roosevelt knew Americans had in each other. Author and investigative journalist Leah McGrath Goodman unpacks her report, ‘Inside America’s Race to Hide the World’s Money.’ Tuning in, you’ll hear all about Leah’s life and career, where the estate tax originated in the US, what a trust is, why South Dakota started trying to attract wealthy individuals to direct their money there, and more. We delve into how people who don’t actually live in the state can take advantage of its tax system before discussing the benefits of South Dakota’s privacy laws. Leah goes on to touch on the biggest concerns she uncovered when reporting about the South Dakota trust machine, and she shares some potential solutions to these issues. Finally, our guest tells us what other states are trying to ‘copy’ South Dakota’s structure. Tune in now for this fascinating discussion!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Introducing Leah McGrath Goodman and an overview of her background.
- The history of the estate tax in the US and what a trust actually is.
- What motivated South Dakota to attract wealthy people to direct their money there.
- How people who don’t live in South Dakota can take advantage of this system.
- A breakdown of some of South Dakota’s privacy laws and how they’re beneficial.
- What South Dakota, as a state, gains from utilizing a system like this.
- The main concerns that arose in Leah’s reporting about the SD trust system.
- A few of the benefits of the South Dakota trust empire on the economy as a whole.
- Leah breaks down some potential solutions to some of these issues.
- Who originally came up with this structure and which states are trying to emulate it too.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Leah McGrath Goodman on LinkedIn