I’d like everyone to go out and buy a copy of Professor Paul Mahoney’s slender new book, Wasting a Crisis – Why Securities Regulation Fails. Paul is a brilliant guy. Until this spring, he was the dean of the University of Virginia School of Law where he is the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law and the Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law, teaching securities laws. This is a great book and an important read. Paul argues cogently that:
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“Shaking” Things Up: Seismic Risk Assessments
Returning to our theme that nothing’s easy and everything keeps changing, here is one out of left field. Let’s talk Probable Maximum Loss (“PML”) and seismic risk. ASTM International, the market standard setting organization for everything from toilet bowls to condoms, has just issued an amended seismic standards: Standard Guide for Assessments of Buildings (E2026-16) and their Standard Practice for Probable Maximum Loss Evaluations for Earthquakes (E2557-16) (the “Standards”)[1]. These Standards establish an industry norm for the requirements to evaluate the financial risk for real estate in zones with seismic activity. Each investigation of real estate is “graded” between a Level 0 investigation (high uncertainty) and a Level 3 investigation (very low uncertainty) based on the qualifications of the assessors and the work done during the investigation. The Standards refer to a Level 0 investigation as a “desktop” investigation, maybe (in a completely subtle way) to imply something about the proximity of the assessors to the potentially shaking site.Continue Reading “Shaking” Things Up: Seismic Risk Assessments
Coming to a Hotel Near You: The Starwood-Marriott Merger
It seems fitting that Marriott’s upcoming acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts (creating one of the largest hotel companies in the world) is anticipated to occur during the prime summer vacation season. The combined company will be comprised of more than 5,500 hotels and 30 brands. By way of comparison, Hilton is comprised of over 4,600 hotels and 13 brands and International Hotels Group is comprised of over 5,000 hotels and 10 brands.
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Text on the Dotted Line: A Text Message Can Create a Binding Contract
Here’s another story in the “It never gets easier” file.
The Massachusetts Land Court recently decided a case that perhaps we should have all guessed was coming.
This is the above the fold headline: Text messages may now create binding contracts. Specifically, a text message can constitute a signature sufficient to satisfy the Statute of Frauds and form a binding contract for the purchase and sale of land.
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