Climate change is fueling an unprecedented number of extreme weather and climate disasters with dire consequences for human life and property. In the last decade, most counties across the United States have experienced multiple disaster events, including at least
Columbia Law School Blogs
Latest from Columbia Law School
Slack Acquisitions: When Startup Innovation Gets Lost After the Deal
Debates over Big Tech M&A often focus on “killer acquisitions,” where a dominant firm buys a startup in order to eliminate a future rival. A more subtle and, in some ways, more difficult problem is that innovation can lose momentum
Morrison & Foerster Discuss SEC Proposal Scaling Back Executive Compensation Disclosure for Most Public Companies
On May 19, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released proposed amendments (Release No. 33‑11419) that it has described as the most significant overhaul of public company reporting in two decades. While the proposal is broad—touching filer
Regulating DeFi Platforms
Decentralized finance, commonly referred to as DeFi, is often celebrated as a transformative innovation in financial markets. By replacing banks, broker-dealers, exchanges, clearinghouses, and other traditional intermediaries with smart contracts and decentralized protocols, DeFi promises faster transactions, lower costs, broader
Paul Weiss Discusses Semiannual Reporting, Potential Flexibility, and Practical Realities
Early last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) released proposed rules to allow U.S. public companies to report their financial statements on a semiannual instead of quarterly basis. The proposed amendments, if adopted, would allow companiesthe option
Is the Senate Strengthening the Case for Tokenized Deposits?
As the U.S. Senate continues to debate the future of stablecoin regulation, much of the discussion has focused on how to bring privately issued digital dollars within a federal regulatory framework. Yet an important question has received comparatively little attention:
How Shareholder Activism in the U.S. and Japan Converged
In a recently published paper I argue that the recent surge in shareholder activism in Japan is not simply the product of Japanese policy reforms. Rather, it results from a convergence of two parallel historical trajectories: a decades-long evolution of
Delaware’s Revised DGCL § 144: Questions After Rutledge
In March 2025, Delaware enacted sweeping changes to its General Corporation Law (DGCL) § 144, reshaping the treatment of transactions involving interested directors, officers, and controlling stockholders. Subsection (a) of § 144 provides safe harbors for transactions between a corporation
Regulation by Delay and the SEC’s Unfinished Wells Reform
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent reforms to the Wells process under Chairman Paul Atkins represent an important effort to restore procedural fairness to the Enforcement Division’s investigative process. The Commission’s revisions emphasize greater transparency, increased access to investigative materials,
The Gender Gap Among IPO Lawyers
Capital markets work is among the most profitable areas of transactional legal practice, and it is typically awarded to lawyers within a tight network. Perhaps the most elite of those lawyers advise securities issuers and underwriters on IPOs. They are