Supreme Court Amicus Brief of Law Professors in Support of Certiorari, Jones v. Harris Associates, No. 08-586

Abstract

Amici curiae law professors filed this brief to urge the Court to grant the petition for certiorari and to clarify the proper scope of the fiduciary duty under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act that investment advisers owe to mutual fund shareholders with respect to the compensation that advisers receive. The brief addresses the Seventh Circuit's decision to disavow the long-established Gartenberg precedent and to hold, instead, that so long as an adviser make[s] full disclosure and play[s] no tricks, a plaintiff cannot prevail in a Section 36(b) action. Amici argue that the Seventh Circuit's decision creates a circuit split, elides a critical provision from the statutory text, and engages in a superficial market analysis.

Keywords: Section 36(b), Investment Company Act, fiduciary duty, mutual fund, compensation, Barbara Baker Aldave, William Birdthistle, James Cox, Jill Fisch, Jesse Fried, Jeffrey Gordon, Donald Langevoort, Charles Murdock, Donna Nagy, Alan Palmiter, William Sjostrom, Ahmed Taha, Randall Thomas, Manning Warren