Profile
Professor Eric Alden has broad securities regulatory and transactional experience and is the author of a forthcoming book involving contract law. He has been a member of the Chase faculty since 2011, and has published articles in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Berkeley Business Law Journal, Hawaii Law Review, the Nevada Law Journal, Northeastern University Law Review and Washington Law Review.
Prior to teaching at Chase, he was a partner in two large Silicon Valley law firms; an attorney fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., in the Division of Corporation Finance, Office of Chief Counsel; a research fellow in securities regulation and corporate governance at the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy; and an adjunct professor at the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
His experience in the areas of securities regulation and transaction includes public company disclosure counseling, securities regulatory compliance, corporate governance, public and private offerings of equity, debt and hybrid securities, mergers and acquisitions, formation of private investment funds and representation of banks and hedge funds in interactions with public markets
Professor Alden holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School of Columbia University, a Master of Arts in modern history from Freie Universität in Berlin, a Certificat d'Etudes Politiques from l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Harvard University.
Eric Alden, The Death of Promissory Estoppel: The Rebirth of Contract (forthcoming Cambridge Univ. Press 2024)
Reversing the Reliance Revolution in Contract
93 Wash. L. Rev. 4 (2018) SSRN
(on the SSRN Top Ten download list for LSN: Rights & Remedies (Private Law - Contracts); Law & Society: Private Law - Contracts eJournal; and Contracts & Commercial Law eJournal)
Promissory Estoppel and the Origins of Contract Law
9 Ne. U. L. Rev. 1 (2017) SSRN
(on the "SSRN Top Ten download list for LSN: Regulation of Contracting Private Parties")
Rethinking Promissory Estoppel
16 Nev. L.J. 659 (2016) SSRN
(on the "SSRN Top Ten download list for Contracts")
Blocking the Ax: Shielding Corporate Counsel from Retaliation as an Alternative to White Collar Hypercriminalization
36 U. Haw. L. Rev. 95 (2014) SSRN Columbia Law School Blog
Primum Non Nocere: The Impact of Dodd-Frank on Silicon Valley
8 Berkeley Bus. L.J. 107 (2011) SSRN
Shareholder Activism by Public Pension Funds and the Rights of Dissenting Employees Under the First Amendment
34 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 289 (2010) SSRN
(this article and those preceding it published as Eric John Finseth)
ERIC ALDEN, THE DEATH OF PROMISSORY ESTOPPEL: THE REBIRTH OF CONTRACT
(forthcoming Cambridge Univ. Press 2024)
Storming the Ramparts: The Ongoing Shift in the Balance of Power Between Shareholders and Incumbent Boards of Directors
Banking & Fin. Servs. Pol’y Rep. (Aspen 2007) (with James B. Carlson)
Guide to the Initial Public Offering
(Merrill Corp. 5th ed. 2004) (with Steven E. Bochner)
Venture Fund Private Placement Memorandum
Venture Capital & Public Offering Negotiation 3-1 (Michael J. Halloran et al. eds., 3d ed. Supp. 2003) (with Larry W. Sonsini, Jonathan Axelrad and Kenneth W. Muller)
The Earnings Release and Disclosure Reform
Insights, Dec. 2003, at 8 (with Steven E. Bochner)
Resales of Securities
Practising Law Institute, Understanding the Securities Laws 389 (2004) (also published in the 2002 and 2003 editions)
Speaker, "Fundamental Contract Law Theory," at Federalist Society Annual Faculty Conference in connection with Association of American Law Schools (AALS) 2018 Annual Meeting, San Diego, California (January 2018)
Speaker, "Securities Crowdfunding," at a symposium sponsored by the Michigan State Journal of Business & Securities Law at Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan (March 2016)
Speaker, "18 U.S.C. 1519 and Anticipatory Obstruction of Justice," Harvard Law School Association of Cincinnati. Spoke as to new 20-year felony provision created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 which criminalizes inter alia the act of destroying or making a false entry in (e.g., backdating) any tangible record (incl., e.g., email) with the intent to impede the proper administration of any matter under the jurisdiction of any federal agency. (June 2015)
Speaker, "18 U.S.C. 1519 and Anticipatory Obstruction of Justice," Kentucky Bar Association. Spoke as to new 20-year felony provision created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 which criminalizes inter alia the act of destroying or making a false entry in (e.g., backdating) any tangible record (incl., e.g., email) with the intent to impede the proper administration of any matter under the jurisdiction of any federal agency. (April 2015)
Speaker, "JOBS Act," Repair or Replace: Lifting SEC Regulation from Patchwork to Permanence Symposium, sponsored by the Ohio State Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal, Ohio State University, Columbus (March 2012)
Speaker, "Potential Impact of the Dodd-Frank Act," Financial Regulatory Reform: Dodd-Frank and Beyond Symposium sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy, Berkeley Law School at the University of California (March 2011)
Speaker, "SEC Proxy Disclosure Rules," Mayer Brown teleconference (February 2010)
Speaker, "Impact of Technology on the Boardroom," Silicon Valley Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Palo Alto, CA (November 2009)
Speaker, "SEC Short Sale Rules," teleconference by the Practising Law Institute (October 2009)
Speaker, "Public Company Corporate Governance," Mayer Brown teleconference, (August 2009)
Speaker, "SEC Short Sale Rules," Mayer Brown Investment Management University conference, Chicago, IL (May 2009)
Speaker, "SEC Disclosure Requirements Regarding Environmental Matters," Mayer Brown teleconference (April 2009)
