Faculty News
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Prof. Ní Aoláin's Work in International Law and Security Post-9/11 Featured in Republik Magazin
September 21, 2020Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin’s work in international law and security post-9/11, as well as a recent report she directed to Switzerland on a new national counter-terrorism law, is featured in Republik Magazin, a popular German magazine focused on issues of politics, economy, and society. In the interview, Ní Aoláin touches on the United Nations’ actions in the aftermath of 9/11 in efforts to combat terrorism, the four central pillars to this counterterrorism strategy, and much more.
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Global Competition Review Quotes Prof. Cotter on Antitrust Division Policy Change
September 16, 2020A September 11, 2020 article (subscription required) in Global Competition Review, titled “DOJ encourages IEEE to consider policy change,” discusses the Antitrust Division”s recent updating of a 2015 Business Review Letter concerning the IEEE’s IPR policy relating to the licensing of standard-essential patents. The article quotes Professor Tom Cotter as stating that the update is “in line with the ‘ideological and highly partisan views’” the head of the division “has expressed on other occasions” regarding the intersection of antitrust and patent law.
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Prof. Ní Aoláin’s U.N. Report Detailing Threats Posed to Freedoms in Hong Kong from New Chinese Security Law Featured in BBC News
September 10, 2020Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin recently issued a major United Nations report—in her capacity as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism—asserting that a new Chinese national security law does not conform with international legal obligations. Specifically, Ní Aoláin and several fellow U.N. special rapporteurs report that the new law “lacks precision in key respects, infringes on certain fundamental rights and may not meet the required thresholds of necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination under international law.”
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Prof. McDonnell Quoted in Wall Street Journal on Lemonade IPO
September 2, 2020Professor Brett McDonnell was quoted in a CFO Journal article in the Wall Street Journal on the recent public listing of Lemonade, Inc. Lemonade, an insurer, is organized as a public benefit corporation. The article quotes McDonnell on the requirements and reasons for being a benefit corporation. “This is our way, a way of committing to you: If you give us your money, we’re going to make some money,” he said. “But we’re also going to do good for the world.”
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Prof. Schwarcz Featured on “Planet Money” Podcast
September 1, 2020Professor Daniel Schwarcz was recently featured on the popular podcast “Planet Money.” In the podcast, Professor Schwarcz discusses the history of property insurance policies and helps to explain how important economic concepts like moral hazard and adverse selection help to explain how insurance policies are drafted.
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Prof. Vaaler Comments on Near-Term Stock Market Trends in WalletHub
August 31, 2020Professor Paul Vaaler wrote a brief commentary in WalletHub regarding near-term stock market trends amidst recent COVID-19 evolutions.
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Bloomberg Law Quotes Prof. Cotter on Recent Federal Circuit Damages Opinions
August 21, 2020An August 21, 2020 Bloomberg Law article titled “Sweat the Small Stuff: Lessons of Federal Circuit Damages Cases” discusses six recent decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on damages for patent infringement. The article quotes Professor Tom Cotter as stating, among other things, that these decisions show “how important small things,” such as the rules requiring patent “marking,” can be. “The marking cases … are ‘probably rather obscure even to many people in the IP world,’ Cotter said. But patent owners limit their damages if they don’t comply with the statute’s technicalities, he said in an email.”
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Prof. Kritzer Quoted in ABA Journal News Item
August 10, 2020“Insurers that opted into the class action and litigation funders that purchased insurer claims are sophisticated businesses. Arguably, they don’t need the same kind of protection from large fees that unsophisticated consumers would need.” This is what Professor Herbert Kritzer had to say about potential challenges to a $185 million fee request by Quinn Emanuel for representing insurers in a suit in which the insurers recovered $3.7 billion of compensation the plaintiffs were owed by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act. Kritzer was interviewed by a reporter from Bloomberg News, and comments from that interview were included in an article about the fee request appearing in the ABA Journal. The insurers Quinn Emanuel represented had been told that if the claim were successful, the firm would seek a fee up to 5% of the amount recovered. At least some of the insurers subsequently sold their interest in any recovery at a discount, and there was speculation that some of the insurers who had not sold their claims and some of the purchasers of the claims from other insurers would not challenge the fee request as excessive based on it working out to more than $18,000 per hour for the work Quinn Emanuel put into the case.
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Prof. Vaaler Quoted in Star Tribune Column on President Trump's Proposed Ban of China-Based Video Sharing and Networking Service TikTok
August 8, 2020John and Bruce Mooty Chair in Law & Business Professor Paul M. Vaaler was quoted in John Rash’s Star Tribune column on President Trump’s threat to ban China-based TikTok. Professor Vaaler noted the threat his ban and proposed sale to Microsoft pose to international trade and investment regime norms.
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Prof. Vaaler Quoted in Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal on CEO Compensation and Corporate Governance Trends During COVID-19 Pandemic
August 7, 2020John and Bruce Mooty Chair in Law & Business, Professor Paul M. Vaaler, was interviewed last month by a reporter from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal (subscription required) for insight on non-salary CEO compensation trends during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Vaaler pointed out how non-salary, often stock-based compensation, comprises a much larger percentage of overall compensation for CEOs, thus cutting salaries is more symbolic than real and substantial. The run-up in stock prices since March follows largely from extraordinary fiscal and monetary stimulus rather than strategic initiatives by firm CEOs. Corporate boards need to adjust overall CEO compensation, including non-salary stock-based components to incent faster adaptation to current pandemic and post-pandemic conditions in the near term.