Bite-Sized Business Law
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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
Confronting Claimant Farming in Mass Tort Bankruptcies
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When every mass-tort claimant has the same voting power, can bankruptcy still deliver a fair settlement? In this episode of Bite-Sized Business Law, we welcome Wake Forest Law Professor Samir Parikh and Fordham Law Professor Richard Squire to examine how claimant farming can distort mass tort bankruptcies. Samir is a nationally recognized expert in mass tort restructurings and editor-in-chief of the Bloomberg Law Bankruptcy Treatise, and Richard is an expert in bankruptcy and corporate restructuring. Together, they explain why the vote is meant to restore agency to victims and how the current system can undermine that promise. They discuss traditional voting rules and the nominal one-dollar valuation approach used when courts face tens of thousands of uncertain claims. Samir and Richard unpack how low-value or nonmeritorious claims, weak powers of attorney, and third-party litigation finance can combine to outweigh stronger claims. They also explore why bankruptcy remains attractive for mass tort resolution, where its safeguards are breaking down, and what courts and lawmakers can do before the next wave of claims arrives. Tune in to discover who benefits from the current system, who risks being left behind, and how mass tort bankruptcy voting can better protect the claimants who have suffered the most.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Discover why voting is vital to claimant agency in mass tort settlements.
- Learn how Chapter 11 voting balances the number and value of claims.
- Explore why courts give mass tort claims a nominal one-dollar value.
- Uncover how courts determine whether claims are meritorious.
- Examine why claimants owed no recovery should be treated as rejecting a plan.
- Consider when attorneys have the authority to vote for their clients.
- Understand how third-party litigation finance can increase the number of weak claims.
- Hear about Samir’s proposed solutions for filtering claims and improving voting.
- See how claimants could challenge a decision under his proposed AI review process.
- Find out how bellwether trials could help courts value representative claims.
- Compare bankruptcy with multidistrict litigation and individual trials for resolving mass torts.
- Whether proposed legislation addresses the problems in mass tort bankruptcies.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
'Mass-Tort Voting Takes Center Stage'
Brook Gotberg on The Price of “Global Peace” in Purdue Pharma
Brook Gotberg and Richard Squire on Purdue Pharma II
Fordham University School of Law Corporate Law Center