Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
The claim that lawyers act as gatekeepers or certifiers in financial transactions is widely discussed in the legal literature. There has, however, been little empirical examination of the claim. We test the hypothesis that law firms have replaced investment banks as the gatekeepers of the market for sovereign debt. Our results suggest that hiring outside law firms sends a negative signal to the market regarding the pending issuance; a finding that is inconsistent with the thesis that outside law firms primarily play a certification role in the sovereign debt market.
Citation
Michael Bradley et al., Lawyers: Gatekeepers of the Sovereign Debt Market?, 38 International Review of Law and Economics 150-168 (2014)
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Public debts, Juristic transactions, Reputation, Government bonds, Lawyers
Included in
Available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2712
Comments
This is the pre-print version of the article dating from 2012. The final publication can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818813000616