Biography

Senior Faculty, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance

Joseph A. Grundfest ’78 is a nationally prominent expert on capital markets, corporate governance, and securities litigation. His scholarship has been published in the Harvard, Yale, and Stanford law reviews, and he has been recognized as one of the most influential attorneys in the United States. Professor Grundfest founded the award-winning Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, which provides detailed, online information about the prosecution, defense, and settlement of federal class action securities fraud litigation. He also launched Stanford Law School’s executive education programs and continues to co-direct Directors’ College, the nation’s leading venue for the continuing professional education of directors of publicly traded corporations. In addition, he is a senior affiliated faculty member with the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1990, Professor Grundfest was a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, served on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors as counsel and senior economist for legal and regulatory matters, and was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Early in his career he was a research associate at the Brookings Institution and an economist and consultant with the RAND Corporation.

Key Works

• Joseph A. Grundfest. With Peter H. Huang, The Unexpected Value of Litigation: A Real Options Perspective, 58 Stanford Law Review 1267 (2006).
• Joseph A. Grundfest, Advice and Consent: An Alternative Mechanism for Shareholder Participation in the Nomination and Election of Corporate Directors, in Shareholder Access to the Corporate Ballot, Lucian Bebchuk, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
• Joseph A. Grundfest and A.C. Pritchard, Statutes with Multiple Personality Disorders: The Value of Ambiguity in Statutory Design and Interpretation, 54 Stanford Law Review 627-736 (2002).
• Joseph A. Grundfest, Disimplying Private Rights of Action Under the Federal Securities Laws: The Commission's Authority, 107 Harvard Law Review 961-1024 (1994).
• Joseph A. Grundfest, Just Vote No: A Minimalist Strategy for Dealing with Barbarians Inside the Gates, 45 Stanford Law Review 857-937 (1993).

In the News

• Stock Backdating Investigations Changed Silicon Valley
  San Jose Mercury News, January 24, 2010
• The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
  KQED 88.5 - Forum with Michael Krasny, January 19, 2010
• Securities Class Action Litigation Declines In 2009: Study
  Business Insurance , January 10, 2010
• Study: Investor Class Actions Dropped Off Last Year
  Daily Journal, January 06, 2010
• Securities Suits Drop As Credit-Crunch Cases Dry Up, Study Says
  Business Week, January 05, 2010

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Capital Markets I
• Capital Markets II
• Venture Capital

Programs

• Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, SLS: W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business
• John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business
• Securities Class Action Clearinghouse (SCAC), W. A. Franke Professor of Law and Business
  Founder Director and Principal Investigator

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Joseph Grundfest, The SEC's Proposed Proxy Access Rules: Politics, Economics, and the Law, Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Working Paper, No. 64 / Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 386 (November 2009).
• Joseph A. Grundfest and Nadya Malenko, Quadrophobia: Strategic Rounding of EPS Data, Rock Center for Corporate Governance Working Paper, No. 65 (2009) / John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper, no. 388 (October 2009)
• Joseph A. Grundfest, What’s Needed is Uncommon Wisdom, DealBook Dialogue Too Soon to Rethink? Assessing the Financial Crisis, New York Times, October 6, 2009.
• Joseph A. Grundfest, Affidavit of Joseph A. Grundfest: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bank of America, No. 09-CV-6829 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (August 21, 2009).
• Joseph Grundfest and Alan L. Beller, Reinventing the Securities Disclosure Regime: Online Questionnaires as Substitutes for Form-Based Filings, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 361 (August 2008).
• Joseph A. Grundfest, Is There an Express Section 10(b) Private Right of Action? A Response to Professor Prentice, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 352, December 2007.
• Peter Clapman, Walking the Walk on Corporate Governance, Pensions & Investments, August 6, 2007
• Joseph Grundfest, Scheme Liability: A Question for Congress, Not for the Court, Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper, No. 344 (August 2007).
• Joseph A. Grundfest and Steven E. Bochner, Fixing 404, 105 Michigan Law Review 1643 (2007).
• Joseph A. Grundfest, The Class-Action Market, Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2007, p. A15.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Founder and Director, Financial Engines, Inc.
• Member, Nominating Committee of the NASDAQ Stock Market

Honors and Awards

• Honoree, National Law Journal's "100 Most Influential Lawyers," 2006
• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1992, 2001
• Elected Member, American Law Institute