Fed. Judge Seeks Legal Reforms

Corporate and securities law must be reformed if U.S. businesses are to prosper, federal appeals court judge Ralph k. Winter said at Harvard Law School last night.

In delivering the Oliver Wendell Holmes lecture before an audience of 50 in Austin Hall, Winter, a professor at Yale Law School, said current decisions in American corporate and securities law are increasing the cost of capital.

"It is self-evident that societies whose governments' facilitate [the growth of] capital thrive," Winter said. "The American legal system unnecessarily increases the cost of capital and retards growth."

Winter said council fees, high premiums and the ever-present threat of lawsuits are just a few of the ways lawyers hurt the corporate economy. He also said that "amorphous" laws make it too easy for corporations to be charged with fraud.