Assessing Dodd-Frank

Abstract

This is an edited transcript of the proceedings of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law’s Weil, Gotshal & Manges Roundtable on Assessing Dodd-Frank, which was held on April 1, 2011. The roundtable was jointly sponsored with the Yale Law & Business Society and Yale Journal on Regulation, and brought together policymakers, legal practitioners, members of the financial community, and academics from finance, economics and law to discuss the principal legislative response to the financial crisis. The roundtable consisted of four panel sessions. The first session, “Overview,” was introduced by Robert Post, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law, Yale Law School. Panelists were Viral V. Acharya, Professor of Finance, New York University Stern School of Business; John Geanakoplos, James Tobin Professor of Economics, Yale University; Gary B. Gorton, Frederick Frank Class of 1954 Professor of Management and Finance, Yale School of Management; and Lawrence S. Makow, Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Roberta Romano, Sterling Professor of Law and Center Director, moderated. The second session addressed, “‘Too Big to Fail’ and the New Resolution Authority.” Panelists were Thomas C. Baxter, Jr., General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Jeffrey N. Gordon, Alfred W. Bressler Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, Randall D. Guynn, Head, Financial Institutions Group, Davis Polk & Wardwell; and Andrew Metrick, Deputy Dean for Faculty Development, Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Corporate Governance, Professor of Finance and Faculty Director of the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance, Yale School of Management. Alan Schwartz, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School, moderated.The third session considered “Housing and Mortgage Reform.” Panelists were Christopher J. Mayer, Senior Vice Dean and Paul Milstein Professor of Real Estate, Finance & Economics Division, Columbia Business School; Robert J. Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Yale University; Susan M. Wachter, Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management and Professor of Real Estate and Finance, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School; and Peter J. Wallison, Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute and Member, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The moderator was Robert C. Ellickson, Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law, Yale Law School. The fourth session, “Assessment,” had the following panelists: Michael S. Barr, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School and former U.S. Department of Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions; H. Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Eugene A. Ludwig, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Promontory Financial Group LLC and former Comptroller of the Currency; and Jonathan R. Macey, Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law, Corporate Finance, and Securities Law, Yale Law School. The panel was moderated by Shyam Sunder, James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics, and Finance, Yale School of Management.