Alexander I. Platt

Associate Professor of Law
Director, Polsinelli Transactional Law Center

he/him/his

Contact Info

alex.platt@ku.edu

785-864-0509

404 Green Hall

Biography —

Alexander I. Platt joined the KU Law faculty in 2020 as an associate professor of law. His scholarship on securities regulation and corporate governance has appeared (or is forthcoming) in leading law journals such as the Stanford Law Review and the Yale Journal on Regulation, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other outlets.

Before joining KU, Platt was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Platt received his B.A., magna cum laude, in Philosophy and Political Science from Columbia University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an Articles Editor on the Yale Law Journal. After graduating from law school, he clerked for judges Stephen F. Williams (D.C. Cir.) and Royce C. Lamberth (D.D.C.) and practiced for four years at a leading law firm in Washington, D.C.

Education —

J.D., Yale Law School, 2012
Yale Law Journal Articles Editor

B.A., Columbia University, 2006
magna cum laude

Teaching —

Contracts, Securities Regulation, Business Organizations

Admitted

New York 2013; District of Columbia (retired) 2014; U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York 2018; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Fourth Circuit 2017; U.S. Court of Federal Claims 2017.

Career History

Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School, 2018-2020; Associate, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, 2013-2014 and 2015-2018; Law Clerk, Hon. Royce Lamberth (D.D.C.), 2012-2013; Law Clerk, Hon. Stephen F. Williams (D.C. Cir.), 2014-2015.

Clerkships

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Washington, D.C., Law Clerk for Judge Stephen F. Williams, 2014 – 2015
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., Law Clerk for Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth, 2012 – 2013

Selected Publications —

(More) Legal Guardrails for a Unicorn Crackdown, N.Y.U. L. Rev. Online (forthcoming 2023).
Going Dark(er): The SEC Whistleblower Program’s Least Transparent Annual Report in Agency History, 2023 U. Ill. L. Rev. Online 66 (2023).
The Whistleblower Industrial Complex, 40 Yale J. Reg. 688 (2023).
Legal Guardrails for a Unicorn Crackdown, 120 MICH. L. REV. ONLINE 89 (2022).
Unicorniphobia, 13 Harv. Bus. L. Rev. 116 (2023).
Beyond “Market Transparency”: Investor Disclosure and Corporate Governance, 74 STAN. L. REV. (forthcoming 2022).
The Non-Revolving Door, 46 J. CORP. L. 751 (2021).
Is Administrative Summary Judgment Unlawful?, 43 HARV. J. L. & PUB. POL’Y 235 (2021).
Gatekeeping in the Dark: SEC Control Over Private Securities Litigation Revisited, 72 ADMIN. L. REV. 27 (2020).
Index Fund Enforcement, 53 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 1453 (2020).
Unstacking the Deck: Administrative Summary Judgment and Political Control, 34 YALE J. REG. 439 (2017).
SEC Administrative Proceedings: Backlash and Reform, 71 BUS. LAW. 1 (2016).
Deciding Not To Decide: A Limited Defense of the Silent Concurrence, 17 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS 141 (2016).
The Temptation of Martinez v. Ryan: Legal Ethics for the Habeas Bar, 8 CRIM. L. BR. 1 (2013) (with Larry Kornreich).
Debiasing Statutory Interpretation, 39 OHIO N. U. L. REV. 275 (2013).

Selected Presentations —

“The Lost History of Mandatory Disclosure”

American Law & Economics Association Annual Meeting, BU Law (June 2023)
UC Law SF Faculty Workshop (Apr. 2023)
Vanderbilt Law & Business Workshop (Apr. 2023)
Michigan State Law Faculty Workshop (Apr. 2023)
Winter Deals Conference, BYU Law (Mar. 2023)
Advanced Securities Regulation Seminar, Washington University School of Law (Mar. 2023)
National Business Law Scholars Conference, University of Oklahoma College of Law (June 2022)

“The Whistleblower Industrial Complex”

Corporate Governance Seminar, University of Michigan School of Law (Mar. 2023)
New Voices in Business Law, AALS 2023, San Diego, CA (Jan. 2023)
Midwestern Law and Economics Association Conference, University of Chicago School of Law (Oct. 2022)
Chicagoland Junior Scholars Conference, Loyola University Chicago School of Law (Sept. 2022)
Corporate and Securities Litigation Workshop, University of Illinois School of Law (Chicago) (Sept. 2022)

Plenary Panel: “The JOBS Act at 10: The Transformation of Capital Raising and the Reach of Public Company Regulation,” National Business Law Scholars Conference, University of Oklahoma College of Law (June 2022)

“Unicorniphobia”

Midwestern Law and Economics Association Conference, BYU Law School (Oct. 2021)
Chicagoland Junior Scholars Workshop, Loyola University Chicago School of Law (Oct. 2021)
Law and Society Association, Corporate and Securities Online Workshop (Sept. 2021)
Drake Law School, Faculty Workshop (Sept. 2021)
Central States Law Schools Association Conference (Sept. 2021)
National Business Law Scholars Conference, University of Tennessee School of Law (Jun. 2021)

“Beyond ‘Market Transparency’: Investor Disclosure and Corporate Governance”

BYU Winter Deals Conference, Park City, UT (Mar. 2022)
Emerging Voices Panel, Section on Securities Regulation, AALS Annual Meeting (Jan. 2022)
Works-in-Progress Panel, Section on Business Associations, AALS Annual Meeting (Jan. 2022)
Corporate Law Academic Workshop Series (“CLAWS”) (Harvard/BU/NYU/Duke) (Nov. 2021)
Rocky Mountain Junior Scholars Forum, BYU Law School (Nov. 2021)
Midwestern Law and Economics Association Conference, BYU Law School (Oct. 2021)
Central States Law Schools Association Conference, Washburn University School of Law (Sept. 2021)
Finance Faculty Seminar, University of Kansas School of Business (Sept. 2021)
National Business Scholars Conference, University of Tennessee School of Law (Jun. 2021)
Wharton Financial Regulation Conference, Wharton School of Business (Apr. 2021)
Faculty Colloquium, University of Nebraska School of Law (Apr. 2021)

“Is Administrative Summary Judgment Unlawful?”

Emerging Voices in Administrative Law, AALS Annual Meeting (Jan. 2021)
Civil Procedure Workshop, Northwestern University School of Law (Oct. 2020).

“The Non-Revolving Door: New Evidence of Capture at the SEC”

Emerging Voices in Business Law, AALS Annual Meeting (Jan. 2021).
Emerging Voices in Securities Regulation, AALS Annual Meeting (Jan. 2021).
University of Oregon School of Law Faculty Workshop (Oct. 2020).
Corporate and Securities Litigation Workshop (July 2020).
National Business Law Scholars Conference, University of Tennessee College of Law (June 2020).
University of Michigan Law School, Junior Scholars Conference (Apr. 2020).
Harvard Law School, Corporate Law Fellows Workshop (Feb. 2020).

“Gatekeeping in the Dark: SEC Control of Private Securities Litigation Revisited”

New Voices in Administrative Law, AALS 2020, Washington, DC (Jan. 2020).
Harvard Law School, Corporate Law Faculty Workshop (Nov. 2019).

“Index Fund Enforcement”

University of Richmond School of Law, Seminar on Corporate Governance (Feb. 2020).
Boston University School of Law, Corporate & Securities Litigation Workshop (Sept. 2019).
Southeastern Association of Law Schools, 2019 Annual Conference (Jul. 2019).
Berkeley Law, University of California, National Business Law Scholars Conference (Jun. 2019).
University of Richmond Law School, Richmond Junior Faculty Workshop (May 2019).
Harvard Law School, Corporate Law Faculty Workshop (Apr. 2019).
Harvard Law School, Corporate Law Fellows Workshop (Apr. 2019).
Harvard Law School, ClimenkoFest (Mar. 2019).

“SEC Administrative Proceedings: Backlash and Reform”

Yale Law School, Center for the Study of Corporate Law, Weil, Gotshal & Manges Roundtable on SEC Enforcement (Mar. 2016) [invited participant].