Advanced Corporate Finance

Lawyers often need an advanced understanding of corporate financial decisions, instruments, and transactions, including equity financing and initial public offerings, the determination of a firm's cost of capital, valuation, payout policy, recapitalizations and bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, and the market for corporate control. Advanced Corporate Finance introduces these topics by lecture and then explores them through detailed analysis of actual cases. This structure maximizes the synergy between theory and practice, providing students with portable, durable, and marketable tools for their careers. Legal considerations that arise in the execution of these corporate financial decisions include mandatory disclosure requirements, the issuance of dual class shares, charges of anticompetitive practices, taxation, appraisal cases and fairness opinions, takeover defenses and fiduciary duty challenges, contractual provisions in merger agreements, insider trading, and Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. This class rigorously advances both conceptual and practical/analytical understanding. The knowledge gained will facilitate professional dealings with chief executive officers and chief financial officers, boards of directors, investment bankers, consultants, portfolio and investment managers, venture capitalists, and private equity investors. Prerequisite: Corporate Finance I (Law 1009) or Introduction to Finance (Law 1036) or equivalent background with professor permission. Elements used in grading: class participation and final exam.