Lawyers all know the old case in which a guy sued another guy over a dead fox that Guy A chased and Guy B caught. Who owns the dead fox?, the case asks. It’s hard to care. My professor asked the better question, which was: just how much was a dead fox worth? The answer, it turns out, is “significantly less than the amount you’d have to spend on lawyers to become a famous old case.” So why did they spend so much on lawyers? Unclear. But the moral of the story is that if you see a lawsuit over something really trivial, it’s probably about something else. My professor added, “usually a love triangle.”

So who is Sean Egan sleeping with? He is, of course, the president of Egan-Jones Ratings, which the SEC sued today over … well, the SEC complaint is amazing: Read more »