May 30, 2012
Half-Baked Laws and Deal Cubes
Since it is a holiday week, I have a couple of lighter topics for my blog entry.
Behind Every Half-Baked Law Is an Over-Sensationalized Cause
In his May 21 Compensation Blog entry on CompensationStandards.com, Mike Melbinger of Winston & Strawn states “…nearly every bad law in the field is the result of Congressional or agency reaction (or overreaction) to some widely publicized occurrence.” To prove it, Mike created a game in which readers can match each half-baked law (Mike’s phrase) with its cause. So you can join in on the fun, I’ve reproduced it here. Match the law on the left with its cause on the right.
| Law | Cause |
| 1. 280G | A. Enron executives |
| 2. 409A | B. Change in control payments made to Bill Agee of Bendix in 1982 |
| 3. AMT | C. 2007 World Financial Crisis (Wow, was it really that long ago? Shouldn’t my investments have recovered by now?) |
| 4. Dodd-Frank Act | D. Enron, Worldcom, Anderson |
| 5. SOX | E. Treasury Secretary Joseph Barr testifies that, in 1967, there were a total of 155 individuals with incomes over $200,000 who did not pay any federal income taxes; twenty of them were millionaires. |
10 pts to anyone who gets all five right. Answers next week.
Deal Cube Wars
I’m not quite sure what a deal cube is–I guess it is some sort of souped-up paperweight given to lawyers to commemorate a deal they worked on–but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the Deal Cube Tournament that Broc Romanek is running in his blog on TheCorporateCounsel.net. Check out the cubes (he’s gotten readers to send in pictures of over 130 of them) and vote for your favorites. Some of them are quite clever. Broc’s blog is available for both subscribers and nonsubscribers, so anyone can join in on the fun.
Don’t Miss Out: Conference Early-Bird Expires on Thursday
The early-bird rate for the 20th Annual NASPP Conference expires this Thursday. You can see by the program that this is going our most informative Conferences ever. You’re going to want to be there, so make sure you register by Thursday to save on your registration.
NASPP “To Do” List
We have so much going on here at the NASPP that it can be hard to keep track of it all, so we keep an ongoing “to do” list for you here in our blog.
- Register for the 20th Annual NASPP Conference in New Orleans. Don’t wait, the early-bird rate is only available until this Thursday, May 31.
- Register for the NASPP’s newly updated and expanded online program, “Tackling Equity Compensation Issues Related to Mergers & Acquisitions.” Don’t wait–the early-bird rate has been extended to June 8, but we won’t extend it again.
- Complete the Compliance-O-Meter quiz on Death and Disability.
- Check out the NASPP’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
- Renew your NASPP membership for 2012 (if you aren’t an NASPP member, join today).
- Don’t miss your local NASPP chapter meetings in Atlanta, Chicago, Michigan and Philadelphia.
– Barbara
Tags: 280G, 409A, AMT, deal cubes, Dodd-Frank, Dodd-Frank Act, half-baked laws, Section 409A, SOX