Events 2012

Thursday, November 1, 2012
Boalt Hall, Room 110; 12:45 – 1:45 pm

Mergers & Acquisitions Across Borders: An Insider’s Look at US Companies Shopping Overseas

Dr. Joachim Rosengarten, Hengeler Mueller  

Co-Sponsored with the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ)

Dr. Joachim Rosengarten ’92 LL.M. gives insights into his practice of advising US clients on their acquisition activities in Europe.  He will analyze the situation of a US company planning the public takeover of a German company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Dr. Rosengarten will discuss tactical considerations as well as the possible legal pitfalls of a public tender offer. Click here to view Dr. Rosengarten’s presentation.

Friday, October 5, 2012
San Francisco
The 2012 Philomathia Foundation Forum

Where Is the Money? Unlocking Capital for Real Estate Energy Efficiency Improvements

BCLB and the Haas School of Business, in collaboration with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and The Philomathia Foundation, will convene a select group of business, academic, policy, finance and technology leaders to discuss how to unlock capital for the financing of energy efficiency improvements for US buildings. The forum will provide a venue for relationship building among market participants and a venue for the exchange of ideas among industry leaders.

All real estate market participants will benefit from improved energy efficiency in US buildings, both commercial and residential. But how can the capital needed to finance these improvements be accessed and deployed to catalyze an energy efficiency market transformation?

A number of impediments challenge the scaled deployment of capital to energy efficiency, including the need for: (1) data and underwriting techniques to include energy considerations in risk and asset management decisions; (2) a liquid secondary market for existing and proposed energy efficiency financing products; and (3) technology innovations to measure and benchmark energy efficiency risk.

Click here for the event summary and additional resources.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Boalt Hall, Room 110; 12:45 – 1:45 pm 
Smart Course Planning: What to Take in Business Law and Why

Join BCLB for an information session about the business law courses at Berkeley Law presented by Ken Taymor and other business law faculty. Scott Haber, Corporate Partner at Latham & Watkins will also participate in the discussion and share his perspective on what coursework to pursue before graduation and why.

 

 

The session will review the Spring 2013 classes and highlight new course offerings. This is an opportunity for students to learn how business law courses meet their interests and prepare them for professional practice, whether in a firm, government or NGO position. The program will also review the Business Law Certificate requirements.  

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Boalt Hall, Room 110; 12:45 – 1:45 pm 
Dangerous Liaisons: China’s Indirect Investment Structures and the Shaky Foundations of “China Plays” on the Global Capital Markets 
Nicholas C. Howson, Visiting Professor
Co-sponsored with the Center for Chinese Studies (CCS)

Since the early 1990s, foreign capital has been channeled into China’s prohibited or restricted investment sectors via “indirect” investment structures, first called “China China Foreign” (CCF) and lately commonly resurrected as “Variable Interest Entity” (VIE) structures. Professor Howson will analyze the phenomenon as it has grown over nearly two decades, the way in which it underpins the great majority of apparently “Chinese” issuers raising money on the global capital markets, the very serious legal and financial risks arising from it, and several case studies where those risks have ripened into collapse or quasi-expropriation. Professor Howson will conclude with a discussion of the legal, professional and ethical obligations of corporate and securities lawyers and underwriters — Chinese and foreign — in connection with the structuring and facilitation of these transactions, and the introduction of such risk-laden issuers into the world’s capital markets. Handout is available here.

Thursday, September 6, 2012 
Boalt Hall, Room 110; 12:45 – 1:45 pm 
Saving Homes, Saving Cities: Fixing the Mortgage Crisis Locally 
Bill Falik, Adjunct Professor 
Co-Sponsored with the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ)

Berkeley Law and Haas School of Business Adjunct Professor Bill Falik will give a presentation on his work with Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP), an organization advocating and seeking to fund local governments’ use of eminent domain to purchase underwater mortgages. His presentation will focus on MRP’s primary goal—to reduce the devastating health, safety, and welfare costs of underwater mortgages, foreclosures, and abandoned properties, leading to crime and blight, as well as depressed economic activity. He will argue that principal reduction is the most effective way to break the mortgage logjam that evicts families, decimates communities, paralyzes the banking system, and holds back economic recovery. Handout is here.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 
Boalt Hall, Warren Room; 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm 
Business Law Certificate Ceremony

This year, the Business Law certificate program recognized 35 recipients. Sixteen JD and nineteen LL.M. students were awarded the certificate in recognition of their completion of rigorous, innovative coursework and complementary research designed to address key areas of change in the global economy, business environment, and legal structure. To learn more about the Business Law courses and Certificate programs click here.

Friday, April 13, 2012 
International House; 8:30 am – 1:30 pm 
The Foreclosure Crisis: Challenges and Solutions to the Mortgage Meltdown

Home foreclosures continue to plague the US economy and wreak havoc in the lives of individuals, families and communities.  Attempts to resolve the foreclosure crisis have sparked government programs, lender initiatives and multiple lawsuits. Speakers from UC Berkeley will join other scholars, business leaders and policymakers to address what the public and private sectors should and could do to resolve the seemingly endless stream of home foreclosures and avoid their future repetition. 

Videos can be found here.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Boalt Hall, Room 110; 12:40 – 1:40 pm
Smart Course Planning: What To Take in Business Law and Why

 Fall 2012 Courses for JD Certificate       Curriculum Highlights

BCLB will preview the Fall 2012 Courses. Join us for an information session about the business law program at Berkeley Law presented by Ken Taymor and other business law faculty. The program will review the Fall 2012 classes and highlight new course offerings. This is an opportunity for students to learn how business law courses meet their interests and prepare them for professional practice, whether in a firm, government or NGO position. The program will also review the Business Law Certificate requirements. Lunch will be provided. 

Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Boalt Hall, Room 100; 12:40 – 1:40 pm
Working with Asian Universities: A Practitioner’s Perspective
Michael Lin
, Marks & Clerk Hong Kong

Co-sponsored with the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (BCLT)

There has been a growing trend for US multinationals to partner with Asian universities for basic research and other kinds of technical collaboration, especially in India, China and Japan. There are specific reasons why this trend is growing faster than partnering with US and European universities. Is it likely to continue? What do we learn from it to strengthen our own competitiveness? CLE credit available. Lunch will be provided.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Boalt Hall, Room 132; 3:30 – 5:00 pm 
The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs 
William H. Draper III, Draper Richards LP

Co-sponsored with Berkeley Law International and Executive Legal Education (IELE), Haas School of Business Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, Berkeley Engineering Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET), Alpha Kappa Psi, TAMID Israel Investment Group, Berkeley Investment Group, ASUC Office of the President, Capital Investments at Berkeley, and Net Impact Berkeley

Silicon Valley venture capitalist William H. Draper III will speak about his new book, The Startup Game, which takes an up-close look at how the relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs is critical to enhancing the success of any economy. Draper will also autograph copies of his book, following his lecture.

Thursday, March 8, 2012 
Boalt Hall, Room 110; 12:45 – 1:45 pm 
What Do Business Lawyers Do: Practitioners’ Views

In collaboration with the Career Development Office (CDO) and Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ)

Join us for an opportunity to hear from, and ask questions of, some of the Bay Area’s most experienced business lawyers about what  they and their colleagues in the broadly defined “business practice” field do. How has law firm practice evolved and what is the role of an associate? Explore ways you can take advantage of the opportunities law firm practice can offer to Berkeley Law students who are interested in business law (or who don’t know enough about it to know whether or not it is something of interest).

Speakers to include:
Noel Nellis, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe 
Clayton Gantz, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 
Boalt Hall, Room 100; 12:40 – 1:40 pm 
Enforcement Without Foundation? China’s Illegal Insider Trading Enforcement Regime 
Nicholas C. Howson, University of Michigan Law School

Click here to read Howson’s paper.

Co-sponsored with the Center for Chinese Studies (CCS)

China’s securities regulator enforces insider trading prohibitions pursuant to self-conceived and non-public guidance.  Many reported cases indicate that such agency enforcement — and possibly criminal enforcement by the public prosecutor — is possible only pursuant to this guidance, as the trading behavior giving rise to liability is outside of the scope of insider trading liability described in statute.  Howson argues that the agency guidance is itself unlawful and unenforceable, and thus a large part of China’s contemporary insider trading enforcement regime is without foundation.  This radical infirmity underlying what many see as the basis of well-governed and investor-attracting capital markets has important implications not only for China’s securities regulation regime and healthy capital markets development, but also for the entirety of China’s legal and administrative law system in the reform era. 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 
2223 Fulton, 6th Floor; 4:00 – 6:00 pm 
China’s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization 
Roselyn Hsueh, Temple University 

Co-sponsored with Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS)the Center for Chinese Studies (CCS, and theCenter for the Study of Law and Society (CSLS).

Today’s China is governed by a new economic model that marks a radical break from the Mao and Deng eras. Ms. Hsueh will demonstrate how the Chinese government has selectively imposed new regulations even with the introduction of competition. This talk will be introduced by Stanley Lubman