Drafted decades before the advent of the personal computer and the digital age, Form 18 of the Federal Rules of Procedure, which sets forth a fill-in-the-blank template for a patent infringement complaint, has come under increasing scrutiny from litigants and courts around the country in the wake of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft [...]

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) has generated substantial controversy and academic analysis about its ubiquitous appearance in countless mortgage foreclosure actions.  As the ostensible mortgagee under millions of borrowers’ home loans, MERS’s unique relationship with lenders, servicers, and homeowners has resulted in widely disparate judicial treatment across the nation. Although a seemingly large majority [...]

Despite being routinely underfunded, lawyer disciplinary processes must operate in ways that merit the confidence of both society at large and the American legal profession.  This means that those who participate in lawyer grievance adjudication must be vigilant against systemic abuse (whether deliberate or unintentional) and mindful of factors that limit institutional competence.  This Essay [...]

The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act enables the Federal Government to recover statutorily mandated restitution from criminal offenders to compensate the victims of fraud and other corporate crimes.  According to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Justice lacks the statutory authority to obtain pre-conviction restraints on funds in order to satisfy [...]

In a brief response to Eric Miller’s Forget Privacy, Alfred Brophy reminds us that the Warren Court was concerned with a number of allied issues, including privacy (and what Miller refers to as “personal security”) and regulation of government action.  Remembering Privacy and Regulation suggests that the Warren Court drew upon a deep well of [...]

Broad reliance on excessively optimistic credit ratings of structured financial products helped ignite and spread the recent financial crisis. A misalignment of incentives at rating agencies such as Fitch Inc., Moody’s Corporation, and Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) contributed significantly to this excessive optimism. One proposal for better aligning incentives is to facilitate more lawsuits against [...]