domingo, 26 de setembro de 2010

Legal English: Gov. Funding of Stem Cell Research

BLOGGER'S QUESTION: http://volokh.com/2010/09/29/d-c-circuit-issues-second-stay-order-in-stem-cell-case/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+volokh%2Fmainfeed+%28The+Volokh+Conspiracy%29

9/29 - Stay Granted by DC Circuit:
http://www.camraction.com/resources/DC%20Circuit%20-%20order%20granting%20stay.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/opinion/30thu2.html?scp=1&sq=2%20/%2029%20stem%20cell%20appeal&st=cse

MUST READ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey-Wicker_Amendment
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/09/legal-analysis-parsing-the-stem-.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/health/policy/25scientists.html?ref=stemcells

The Lamberth/District Court Ruling: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2009cv1575-44

News Coverage:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec10/stemcell_08-24.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/health/policy/24stem.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzWyK8EjyJ8&p=A6096A87136EB739&playnext=1&index=7

SINCE THEN:

08/31 - Emergency Motion to Stay:
http://www.nih.gov/about/director/stemcell/stay_08312010.pdf
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/08/nih-asks-judge-to-suspend-stem-cell.html
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/assets/2010/09/08/Main%20Memorandum.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/brief.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxMWZOuyPg
http://www.nih.gov/about/director/stemcell/appeal_08312010.pdf

09/07 - Motion Denied:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/assets/2010/09/08/Three-page%20order.pdf

09/08 - DOJ Appeals to US Court of Appeals:
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/staymotionfiled.pdf

09/09 - US Court of Appeals Stays Injunction:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/STAY%20GRANTED.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/health/policy/10stem.html?ref=stemcells

09/20 - UC Wants in:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/health/regents_stem_cell.pdf
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/09/uc-system-asks-to-join-stem-cell.html

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/Plaintiffs%20response%20to%20UC%20motion.pdf
http://www.stemcellfunding.net/resources/DenialofIntervention.pdf

segunda-feira, 13 de setembro de 2010

Legal English: Material for QUIZ 2

QUIZ 2 MATERIAL:

Ontario v. Quon
Supreme Court Ruling: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-1332.pdf
Newshour report: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june10/scotus_06-17.html

ReedSmith Teleseminar:
http://www.reedsmith.com/events/search_events.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.content_view_1&cit_id=28639

SEC Fraud Complaint against Countrywide:
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2009/comp21068.pdf
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iteRiORi-yg

Legal English: New America Foundation Seminar

New America Foundation Seminar Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9TIF1VKHuo


The Volcker rule / Bang or whimper?A much-hyped reform may not have much effect on alternative investors
http://www.economist.com/node/16435769

… the “Volcker rule”, which was designed to __________ banks’ “__________” trading activities (bets made for their own account) and “_________” of hedge funds and private-equity firms.
( firms / proprietary / sponsorship / restrict )

…bankers have worried that they might be _______ to sell their hedge funds and private-equity ______ because politicians consider those _______ too _______.
(risky / units / forced / activities)

Their worst fears seem _________. As The Economist went to press, it looked likely that a _________version of the Volcker rule would pass, allowing banks to keep __________ hedge-fund and private-equity units for clients who want to invest in them, and perhaps to keep putting a small _______ of their own ___________ in them as well.
( share / unfounded / capital / running / diluted)



Dodd-Frank Bill's Volcker Rule a Win for Big Banks
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/06/dodd-frank-bills-volcker-rule-a-win-for-big-banks/58747/

… revised ____ of the Volcker rule was passed by Congress, watered down significantly from its original conception. It allows banks to invest _____3% of their tier 1 capital in private equity and hedge funds, but they cannot own more than a 3% ownership ______ in any private equity group or hedge fund. The 3% capital _____is a big enough _______that most big banks won't have to curb their proprietary trading much, if at all.
(stake / version / threshold / loophole / up to / curb )

Here's a chart showing Tier 1 and 3% of that for five major banks:



As you can see, the big banks can still do an _____ lot of proprietary trading. According to a report from CNBC earlier this week, the 3% limit will likely only significantly affect Goldman Sachs, which _________ around 10% of its revenue from proprietary trading. The other banks' ___________ of proprietary trading will be ________unaffected. This could result in Goldman _________ its bank holding company charter, so to avoid the Volcker rule altogether.
(shedding / generates / magnitude / awful / largely)


 
Glass–Steagall Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act

The Banking Act of 1933 was a law that ________ the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation. It is most commonly known as the Glass–Steagall Act, after its legislative sponsors, Carter Glass and Henry B. Steagall.

Some provisions of the Act, such as Regulation Q, which allowed the Federal Reserve to _________ interest rates in savings accounts, were ___________by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were ____________ on November 12, 1999, by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

The repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 effectively removed the separation that previously existed between Wall Street investment banks and _________ banks and has been blamed by some for exacerbating the damage caused by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market that led to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010. The potential to make enormous profits trading mortgage-backed securities with artificially high _________ encouraged banks to take on __________ intolerable risk in the form of bad loans.
(repealed / repealed / ratings / depository / established / otherwise / regulate)

domingo, 5 de setembro de 2010

Legal English: Countrywide Vocab

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iteRiORi-yg


Mirage: _____________ analysts and investors. __________ Contrywide ______ as primarily a maker of___________ quality mortgage loans, qualitatively different from competitors who ____________ primarily in riskier lending
(prime / reassured / engaged / held out )




Fraud: engaged in ____________ sleight of hand – appearing to provide sufficient information to__________ analysts and the purchasers of its mortgage ____________ securities (“MBS”) that Countrywide was being _______________, all while ________________ the true nature of the company’s rapidly deteriorating ________________ quality from its equity investors

(satisfy / backed /concealing / disclosure / underwriting / forthcoming )



“Supermarket" strategy: offer any product offered by any ___________ and adopt _______________ guidelines that were as________ as ever / riskier and riskier loans and "exceptions,” which failed to _____________ already wide underwriting guidelines and had a higher ___________ of default.

( underwriting / rate / competitor / meet / wide )


Was more dependent than many of its competitors on selling loans it __________ into the ______________ mortgage market

_________ to disclose that Countrywide's business model was ____________

____________ the market by falsely assuring investors that Countrywide was primarily a prime quality mortgage' lender which had avoided the ______________ of its competitors
( unsustainable / secondary / failed / misled / excesses / originated )


falsely ____________ that Countrywide "manage[d] credit risk through credit _______, underwriting, quality control and ____________ activities," and the 2005 and 2006 Forms 10-K falsely ______________ that Countrywide ______________ its continuing access to the mortgage backed securities market by "consistently producing quality mortgages.”


(policy / stated / surveillance / ensured / represented)



In one internal email, Mozilo referred to a particularly ___________ subprime product as "toxic," and in another he ___________ that the company was "flying blind," and had "no way" to predict the __________ of its heralded product, the Pay-Option ARM loan. Mozilo believed that the risk was so high and that the secondary market had so ___________ Pay-Option ARM loans that he repeatedly urged that Countrywide sell its entire portfolio of those loans

( mispriced / stated / performance / profitable )


while in __________ of material, non-public information concerning Countrywide's increasing credit risk and the risk that the poor expected performance of Countrywide-originated loans would _____________ Countrywide from continuing its business model of selling the majority of the loans it _______________ into the secondary mortgage market, ___________ over 5.1 million stock options and sold the underlying shares for total ______________ of over $139 million


(exercised / possession / originated / proceeds / prevent)



Remedies

Enter an order, __________ to Section 21 (d)(2) of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78u(d)(2), _____________ defendants Mozilo, Sambol, and Sieracki from _____________ as officers or directors of any_____________that has a class of securities registered ____________ to Section 12 of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. § 781, or that is required to __________ reports pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. § 780(d).

(acting / pursuant / file / issuer / pursuant / prohibiting)



Order defendants Mozilo and Sambol to _____________ all _____________ gains from their illegal _____________, together with prejudgment interest thereon.


( ill-gotten / conduct / disgorge )

Prime 6: Phobias

Facing Your Phobias: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqIqT-8M6I8