2017 Azbee Awards of Excellence
Category
Print > Individual Profile > Upper Midwest
Awarded to
Terry Carter, Senior Writer; Reginald Davis, Assistant Managing Editor
Entry details
Bill Black's Quest
Issue date (if applicable): 2/1/2016
Publication name: ABA Journal
Publishing company: American Bar Association
Website home page: www.abajournal.com
Please describe the publication's mission and readership:
The ABA Journal is the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association, covering the trends, people and finances of the legal profession and the broader legal services industry.
As a leading voice in legal media, the Journal provides a forum online and in print for the free expression and interchange of ideas. The Journal reports objectively on timely, relevant issues of interest and importance to lawyers and the legal services industry. Readership includes the 400,000 members of the American Bar Association and readers of ABAJournal.com, which is available for free to the public.
Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:
Taking a unique look at the long-stewing controversy over the fact that no high-level U.S. bankers were punished for the 2008 financial meltdown, this feature is an in-depth look through the eyes of Bill Black. Black was instrumental in many of the prosecutions of executives in the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s. He developed the theory of “control fraud,” in which a business enterprise can be looted from the inside, to explain what happens in these cases. Black is a leading authority on the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, but the stridency that helped him imprison S&L executives worked against him in more partisan times. Other countries, however, have been taking advantage of his expertise. As a result of this feature article, Phil Angelides, a former California state treasurer and chair of the Congress-created Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that investigated the meltdown (and who is quoted at length in the story), has grown more pointed in his criticism. Soon after publication, he wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, urging her to pursue prosecutions, citing Black’s analogy of chasing mice while the lions roam. Angelides advised her to take advantage of the 10-year statute of limitations, a lesser known possibility explained in this feature. And soon after publication, Black and others created Bank Whistle Blowers United to provide prosecutors with a detailed approach to prosecutions under current laws.
Links to entry URLs
Please note: These URLs are only required for entries in the Online division categories, entries in the Design division categories that are specific to websites, entries in the Website of the Year category, and entries in the Cross-Platform Package of the Year category.
Links to Uploaded Entry Files
Please note: The links below are the same links as clicking on the Preview images at the top of this column. You may click the links below to view each submitted entry file.
View entry file #1
View entry file #2
View entry file #3
View entry file #4
View entry file #5
View entry file #6
View entry file #7
View entry file #8
View entry file #9
View entry file #10
Bill Black's Quest
Category
Print > Individual Profile > Upper Midwest
Description
Publication name:
ABA Journal
Company:
American Bar Association
Winner Status
- Regional Gold Award
Share