January 21: Cleveland - What Lawyers Say Determines Choice of Law in Merger Agreements #MCLE

Juliet Kostritsky
Professor of Contract Law
Case Western Reserve University
School of Law

Description:
Professor Kostritsky's paper will address the reasons underlying the choice of law made in a set of approximately 400 merger agreements. Rather than relying on a hypothesis that that a preference for formalism underlies a particular choice of law, Professor Kostritsky asked lawyers what matters to them and their clients in making the choice of law decision.
Professor Kostritsky designed a survey sent out to 812 lawyers identified from the EDGAR database complied by the SEC as a lawyer who worked on a merger agreement during the period of Jan 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011. The survey responses shed light on several issues including who chooses the law (client or lawyer), what factors (ranked in order of preference) influence the choice of law in New York and in Delaware, how Delaware and New York compare in terms of formalism, the degree of comfort with New York and Delaware contract law, and the influence of the forum on the choice of law.
Title:
What Lawyers Say Determines Choice of Law in Merger Agreements 
When/Where:
January 21, 2015
8:30 A.M. - 9:30 A.M.
City Club of Cleveland

850 Euclid Avenue #200
Cleveland, OH 44114
Speaker:
Professor Kostritsky is the Everett D. and Eugenia S. McCurdy Professor of Contract Law at Case Western Reserve University. Her research focuses on legal interventions in incomplete contracts, trade usages, contract interpretation, promissory estoppel and illegal contracts. She teaches Contracts, Law and Business, Commercial Paper, Sales, and Advanced Contracts. The first year classes in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2007 voted Professor Kostritsky their favorite professor. Prior to joining the Case law faculty, Professor Kostritsky was an associate with the New York law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. She graduated with a B.A. from Harvard and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin where she was a member and articles editor on the Wisconsin Law Review.
By:
Case downtown lecture series
Credit:
1 hour of in-person CLE credit available, pending approval
Cost:
Free - but space is limited - pre-registration required.
More Information and Registration