3CL Travers Smith Seminar: 'Piercing the Corporate Veil: Some Misfits between Theory and Practice'

Speaker: Dr Moran Ofir (IDC Herzliya, Israel)

Corporate limited liability and its flip side, piercing of the corporate veil, are both devices to allocate the risk of insolvency between firm owners and creditors. In this seminar, Dr Ofir will argue that since the doctrine of corporate limited liability externalizes costs from the owners of the firm to its creditors, it is not normatively justifiable vis à vis creditors who were unable to charge a premium for the concomitant risk. Dr Ofir will scan various types of owners-creditors pairs with the objective of defining the optimal risk allocation device to fit their relationship. She will also analyze all the legal cases litigated in the Israeli courts between 2011 and 2016 where plaintiffs sought to pierce the corporate veil. Dr Ofir’s analysis will reveal that except in the most obvious cases (those involving fraud or overreaching), the courts frequently err in applying the theory and hence the law of piercing remains, as Judge Cardozo once remarked, "enveloped in the mists of metaphor". She will conclude by offering a list of recommendations.

3CL runs the 3CL Travers Smith Lunchtime Seminar Series, featuring leading academics from the Faculty, and high-profile practitioners. For more information on past events including recordings, please refer to the Centre activities page.

For all seminars in B16, lunch will be available beforehand in the Basement atrium area. There is no charge for lunch or to attend the seminar.

Enquiries to: 3cl@law.cam.ac.uk