Corporate & Securities Law Research

Updated by Michael Umberger 
November 2021

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Some resources on this page are subscription databases that require a W&M ID and password for off-campus access.

Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw require individual IDs and passwords for both off-campus and on-campus access.
Introductory Sources

(Selected sources providing a quick overview)

Corporate Law (Concepts & Insights Series) (4th ed. 2020)
West Academic (previous edition available at KF1416 .B35 2015 (Reserve)) 

Examples & Explanations for Corporations (9th ed. 2021)
Wolters Kluwers Online Study Aids 

Examples & Explanations for Securities Regulation (8th ed. 2021)
Wolters Kluwers Online Study Aids 

The Law of Corporations in a Nutshell (8th ed. 2020)
West Academic (previous edition available at KF1414.3 .H35 2016 (2nd Floor)) 

Principles of Securities Regulation (Concise Hornbook Series) (5th ed. 2021)
West Academic (previous edition available at KF1439 .H393 2016 (2nd Floor)) 

Securities Law (Concepts & Insights Series) (6th ed. 2019)
KF1440 .S64 2019 (Reserve) West Academic

Securities Litigation and Enforcement in a Nutshell (2nd ed. 2021)
West Academic (previous edition available at KF1440 .S23 2016 (2nd Floor)) 

Securities Regulation in a Nutshell (12th ed. 2021)
West Academic (previous edition available at KF1440 .R37 2016 (2nd Floor)) 

 
Library Materials

Library Catalog

To search for books, journals, and audiovisual materials held by William & Mary libraries, use the online catalog.

The following are useful subject headings for this topic:

  • Commercial Law
  • Consolidation and merger of corporations--United States
  • Corporations--Finance--United States
  • Corporation law--United States
  • Directors of corporations--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States
  • Securities--United States
  • Securities and Disclosure

You can also search for materials from a jurisdiction by adding the location to a keyword search (e.g., virginia corporations).

To search for materials from other libraries, use the Worldcat database.

Browsing the Collection

You can also find corporate and securities law resources by browsing the shelves near the Library of Congress call number range KF1384 to KF1439. Some relevant books are on reserve.

Primary Sources

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (Title 17 covers Commodity and Securities Exchanges)
ecfr.gov  govinfo  HeinOnline  Lexis  Westlaw

Federal Register
federalregister.gov  govinfo  HeinOnline  Lexis  Westlaw

Federal Securities Laws
Researching federal securities laws can be partcularly challenging, as the relevant federal statutes and regulations are rarely referenced in the same manner as laws in other areas. When referring to securities statutes, practitioners rarely refer to the relevant U.S. Code sections, instead referring to the sections in the original acts. Additionally, practitioners typically refer to securities regulations not by their C.F.R. citations but by their individual rule numbers. 

For more information on the peculiarities of securities law research, please refer to the SEC's guide to Researching the Federal Securities Laws Through the SEC Website or to Chapter 1 of the book Specialized Legal Research, available in the Wolf Law Library Reference collection at KF240 .S64 2014. 

The following are among the most significant federal securities statutes. The links accompanying each statute are to investor.gov, which provides information on and full-text PDFs of each law: 

Treatises


The following treatises on corporate and securities law can be found in the library at the call number listed or on Bloomberg Law, Lexis, VitalLaw, or Westlaw:

  • Corporate Law
    • R. Franklin Balotti  & Jesse A. Finkelstein, The Delaware Law of Corporations & Business Organizations (4th ed. 2021)
      VitalLaw  Westlaw (previous edition available at KFD213 B35 1998 (2nd Floor)) 
    • Phillip I. Blumberg et al., Blumberg on Corporate Groups (2nd ed. 2005) 
      KF1465 B59 2005 (2nd Floor)  VitalLaw
    • James D. Cox & Thomas Lee Hazen, Cox and Hazen on Corporations (2nd ed. 2003)
      KF1414 C69 2003 (Reserve)
    • William M. Fletcher, Fletcher Cyclopedia of the Law of Corporations
      KF 1384 .F55 (2nd Floor)  Westlaw
      • Fletcher Corporation Forms Annotated
        Westlaw
    • William E. Knepper & Dan A. Bailey, Liability of Corporate Officers and Directors (8th ed. 2009)
      KF1423 K58 2009 (2nd Floor)  Lexis  Lexis Digital Library
    • Linda O. Smiddy & Lawrence A. Cunningham, Soderquist on Corporate Law and Practice (4th ed. 2012) 
      KF1414 S57 2012 (2nd Floor)
    • Robert B. Thompson, O'Neal and Thompson's Close Corporations and LLCs: Law and Practice (rev. 3rd ed. 2004) 
      KF1466 O52 2004 (2nd Floor)  Westlaw
  • Securities Law
    • Harold S. Bloomenthal, Securities Law Handbook (2021 ed.)
      KF1439 B55 2021 (2nd Floor)  Westlaw 
    • Harold S. Bloomenthal & Samuel Wolff, Securities and Federal Corporate Law (2nd ed. 1998)  
      KF1439 S4 v.3 1998 (2nd Floor) Westlaw
    • Gary M. Brown, Soderquist on the Securities Laws (5th ed. 2006)
      KF1440 S63 2006 (2nd Floor)
    • Thomas Lee Hazen, The Law of Securities Regulation (7th ed. 2017)
      KF1439 .H39 2017 (Reserve)  Westlaw
    • Arnold S. Jacobs, Disclosure & Remedies Under the Securities Law
       Westlaw
    • Charles J. Johnson & Joseph McLaughlin, Corporate Finance and the Securities Laws (6th ed. 2020) 
      KF1428 .J58 2020 (2nd Floor)
    • Louis Loss, Joel Seligman, & Troy Paredes, Fundamentals of Securities Regulation (7th ed. 2018) 
      KF1439 .L6 2018 (2nd Floor) 
    • Louis Loss, Joel Seligman, & Troy Paredes, Securities Regulation (5th ed. 2014) 
      KF1070 L62 2014  VitalLaw
    • Lorraine Massaro & Robert Zinn, Securities Practice Guide 
      Lexis
    • A.A. Sommer, Jr., Federal Securities Act of 1933
      Lexis
    • A.A. Sommer, Jr., Federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934
      Lexis
Periodicals

Periodical Indexes 

LegalSource
Contains detailed indexing for over 1,200 legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, institutes, statutes, bar association and university publications. Includes full text for over 400 journals.
Coverage: 1908 - present.

Subjects: 

  • Corporate directors
  • Corporate finance laws
  • Corporate lawsuits
  • Corporation law
  • Mergers & acquisitions
  • Securities
  • Securities disclosure laws  
  • Securities registration
Selected Corporate & Securities Law Journals

Other Resources

Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law has two practice centers that collect resources on corporate and securities law:

Additionally, there are a number of Bloomberg Law News channels that focus on corporate and securities law:

VitalLaw

VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) has a number of pages that collect resources (including treatises and some pirmary resources) on corporate and securities law:

Legal Research Sites

  • FindLaw Corporate Counsel Center 
    • A free center for information, resources, analysis, and news related to business operations, corporate governance, finance, human resources, intellectual property, and litigation & disputes. 

Official Federal Government Sites

  • Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC)
    • This is the official gateway to SEC information. Includes abundant links to private and industry sites, regulation actions, and securities litigation.
  • Investor.gov
    • A website from the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy that provides online resource to help individuals make sound investment decisions and avoid fraud.

Associations

  • Association of Corporate Counsel
    • A national association of in-house counsel which is noted for its aggressive cost containment programs and, increasingly, for lobbying for remuneration for house counsel that meet or exceed typical compensation for outside counsel.
  • International Capital Market Association
    • This group does for the international securities market what the NASD does for the US market. Self-regulatory information and more, focused mainly on Europe.
  • Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
    • Formerly known as the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). The association for and regulator of securities dealers, as distinct from the stock exchanges. Significant self policing and customer arbitration efforts originate with FINRA.
  • International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
    • An association of national securities regulators. Good site to find the regulator for a particular country.
  • National Securities Clearing Corporation
    • Provides clearing, settlement, risk management, central counterparty services and a guarantee of completion for certain transactions for virtually all broker-to-broker trades involving equities, corporate and municipal debt, American depositary receipts, exchange-traded funds, and unit investment trusts.
  • North American Securities Administrators Association
    • This organization focuses on state securities agencies and investors and offers information on blue sky laws and protection from securities fraud.