Course Section | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

Prerequisite or co-requisite: General familiarity with corporate structure (through Law L6231 Corporations, or otherwise). The purpose of the prerequisite/corequisite requirement is to be sure that sure that everyone in the course is generally familiar with business and economic concepts and vocabulary. A student may have obtained such a background in some other way than taking a Corporations course at the Law School, for example from a work experience or from having taken some relevant undergraduate or graduate courses. In case of doubt the student should consult the professor.

This is a course in financial economics as applied to legal problems. Topics include economics of valuation (including consideration of risk and return and the capital asset pricing model), the efficient market hypothesis (theories, evidence and limits), event studies, option theory, dividends and share repurchases, debt and leverage, and the theory of the firm. For potential transactional lawyers, the course is useful for understanding why financial transactions are structured the way they are. For potential litigators, the course is useful for understanding how finance theory is shaping modern corporate and securities law as well as the techniques used by expert witnesses in cases involving such law.