EIGHTH ANNUAL A.A. SOMMER, JR. LECTURE ON CORPORATE, SECURITIES, AND FINANCIAL LAW[dagger], THE

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 2008 by Treanor, William Michael, Indek, Ben A, Fisch, Jill E, Atkins, Paul S

WELCOME

DEAN TREANOR: Hello, everyone. My name is Bill Treanor. I'm the Dean of Fordham Law School. It's my incredible pleasure to welcome you to tonight's A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture.

This is an event that speaks very profoundly to what the law school is about. We have had, for a long time, one of the strongest business law programs in the nation. I think a number of years ago, in the most recent ranking, we were ranked in the top twenty,5 and our sights are on moving to the very top.

We have an incredible faculty-it's always dangerous when I do this, because I can't see everyone-starting with Professor Gus Katsoris,6 who I think is our most senior faculty member, and Professor Steve Thel.7 In the last couple of years, we have had some extraordinary recent hires, people who are really incredible stars and rising stars in the area of corporate law, Richard Squire8 and Sean Griffith.9 We have a fabulous corporate law journal, The Journal of Corporate & Financial Law,10 which was actually cited in 2005 by the Supreme Court in the Arthur Andersen case.11 We have incredible alumni. So those are really the bases for an extraordinary business law program.

To top it off, we have a Corporate Center,12 which is designed to really mesh leading, cutting-edge theory and cutting-edge practice. It is the brainchild of John Peloso,13 joining us as one of our graduates, who really moved us forward and saw the possibilities of this. Our current chair, Paul Soden,14 who is a great leader in the business law area, has dedicated himself to our Corporate Law Center. We have one of the leading corporate law scholars in the country heading it, Jill Fisch, who is not just a brilliant corporate law scholar that has brought incredible energy to this program, but she also can do literally anything. I don't know if you saw her earlier moving the podium so it would be in exactly the right spot. The classic "no job too big or small" describes Professor Fisch. She is assisted by Professor Caroline Gentile,15 who comes to us with a background in economics, who has just done extraordinary work, and the Executive Director of the Corporate Center, Ann Rakoff,16 who has done a fabulous job.

So we have a fabulous business law faculty, fabulous alumni, a fabulous Corporate Center, and then we have this program, which is really one of our gems, the A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture.

We are joined tonight by Starr Sommer.17 Thank you so much for coming here to be with us tonight. As well as Susan and Jeff Futter,18 thank you, your presence here means so much.

Ben Indek, who really did so much to put this evening together, with the support of Morgan Lewis, will be doing the introduction for SEC Commissioner Atkins. But I just want to say a little bit about how delighted we are to have him here today. Just to put it in context, literally every day we have an event here in this amphitheater. They are fabulous. It's amazing what great programs we have. But the draw on this is amazing. Not only is this room filled, with people in the back, but we have an overflow room, where Professor Scan Griffith is-or so I have been assured. Just to put that in context, this is my sixth year as dean. Eliot Spitzer did not get an overflow room;19 only John Paul Stevens got an overflow room.20 [Commissioner Atkins] very thoughtfully did a very interesting op-ed piece21 and placed it as a way to kind of gin up a bigger crowd.

This is a very special moment. I could not be happier. It brings together our business law commitment, our fabulous Corporate Center, one of the stars, literally, of our Corporate Center program, and a particularly fabulous speaker. Without any further ado, let me present Ben Indek, who has done a great job in putting this all together.

OPENING REMARKS

MR. INDEK: Good evening, and welcome, everybody, to the Eighth Annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture.

Morgan Lewis created this event in honor of our partner who started our securities law practice. Al Sommer was a Morgan Lewis partner from 1979 to 1994. At that time, he became counsel to the firm. Al was a giant of the securities bar, with particular expertise in corporate finance and accounting issues. Al served as an SEC commissioner from 1973 to 1976.22 Later, he was chairman of the Public Oversight Board of the American Institute of [Certified Public Accountants].23 In private practice, he was counsel to many entities and a prolific author and commentator on a wide range of securities law topics.

In preparing for my remarks tonight, I found several interesting documents from Al's tenure at the Commission on the SEC Historical Society website.24 By the way, the Historical Society is also a sponsor of this lecture, and we appreciate its support. In particular, I noticed on the website several of Al's speeches from the mid-1970s and an interview that he gave to the Historical Society shortly before his passing. In those materials I noted certain striking similarities between Al and Commissioner Atkins. Al was, and Commissioner Atkins is today, passionate about the securities laws. Moreover, while at the Commission, both were willing to openly question the status quo.