Prof. Robert P. Thompson Shares Insights on Securities Law at ND Law Patricia O'Hara Distinguished Lecture in Law & Business

Professor Robert B. Thompson, the Peter P. Weidenbruch, Jr. Professor of Business Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, gave the Patricia O'Hara Distinguished Lecture in Law & Business on Wednesday, April 3.

The lecture series is named in honor of Professor Emerita of Law Patricia O’Hara, who taught Business Associations and Securities Regulation, among other courses, as a faculty member and served as the Law School’s dean from 1999 to 2009.

“It is my great honor to celebrate what God has given us in Patty O’Hara, and to name this lecture in her honor,” said G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. “Professor and Dean Emerita Patty O’Hara has been a fixture at the University of Notre Dame for over 50 years and did much to elevate business law here at the Law School.”

Thompson led a discussion on his book, "A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court," which provides a comprehensive account of the Supreme Court’s approach to securities law. It covers the history of the federal securities laws, relying on the justices' conference notes, internal memoranda, and correspondence to illuminate how the justices came to their decisions and drafted their opinions. That history can be divided into five periods that parallel and illustrate key trends of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence more generally.

“My biggest takeaway from this lecture was how well the historical framework — tracing the evolution of securities law through pivotal Supreme Court cases and decisions over decades from 1933 to present day — helped me better contextualize and understand the changing tides and rationale behind securities regulations in the United States,” said third-year law student Jamal Wilson.

Thompson explained the dramatic difference that individual justices have made in shaping the path of securities law. He also discussed key inflection points, beginning with the New Deal, in the Supreme Court's approach to securities regulation.

“I attended today's lecture at the suggestion of my Business Associations professor,” said third-year law student Sarah Jeong. “I will be more attuned to the year of court decisions as I read future cases for class and think about at which point along the three inflection points the particular case falls. I think this will help me better understand the reasoning and outcome of cases.”

"Professor Thompson's insightful analysis of the pivotal junctures in the Supreme Court's shaping of modern securities law was invaluable for understanding the complexities of securities regulation,” added third-year law student Jakim Aaron. “His emphasis on the importance of a judiciary well-versed in securities and administrative law underscores the necessity of an effective securities law jurisprudence to support market regulators in cultivating a robust framework that promotes market integrity and efficiency."

At Georgetown, Thompson teaches courses in corporate, securities, and mergers law and international financial regulation. He has authored or co-authored casebooks on corporations and on mergers, treatises on Close Corporations and Oppression of Minority Shareholders and LLC Members, and more than 50 articles. Thompson has testified before committees of Congress, a state legislature, and the New York Stock Exchange. He has served since 1991 as editor of the Corporate Practice Commentator, served as an advisor for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of Agency, and chaired two sections of the Association of American Law Schools.