Louis Loss (June 11, 1914 – December 13, 1997) was a legal scholar considered by many to be the intellectual father of modern

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

law.Louis Loss, Emeritus Law Professor, Securities Law Specialist, Dies at 83
/ref> He served as the

William Nelson Cromwell William Nelson Cromwell (January 17, 1854 – July 19, 1948) was an American attorney active in promotion of the Panama Canal and other major ventures especially in cooperation with Philippe Bunau-Varilla. Life and career He was born and rai ...

Professor of Law Emeritus at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. He is best known for his treatise ''Securities Regulation'', which is still considered to be the definitive authority on the subject and which has been cited over 50 times by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. The Oxford English Dictionary credits him with having coined the word ''tippee,'' to refer to someone who trades stock after getting a tip from a corporate insider.Louis Loss, 83, Dies; Harvard Professor Defined and Interpreted Field of Securities Law - New York Times
/ref>

Education and career at SEC

Loss graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(B.S.) in 1934 and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

(LL.B.) in 1937. He was also granted an honorary A.M. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1953. Upon his graduation from Yale, Loss joined the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, where he served as staff attorney from 1937 to 1944, chief counsel of the Division of Trading and Exchanges from 1944 to 1948, and associate general counsel from 1948 to 1952. While at the SEC, he helped develop the initial theories that enabled the Securities and Exchange Commission to use the broadly worded anti-fraud provisions of the securities law to prosecute

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

, an area not directly addressed by the law itself.

Career as a law professor

Loss held part-time teaching positions at

Wharton School of Finance The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

and

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of cou ...

before joining the faculty of

in 1952. He served as Professor of Law from 1952 to 1962 and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law from 1962 to 1984. During his tenure at Harvard, he was offered the chairmanship of the SEC by President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

, but he declined. He became William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law ''Emeritus'' in 1984. Among his many students at Harvard were

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Justices

Kennedy Kennedy may refer to: People * John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States * John Kennedy (Louisiana politician), (born 1951), US Senator from Louisiana * Kennedy (surname), a family name (including a list of persons with t ...

, Ginsburg,

Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectua ...

, and

Souter Souter (, ) is a Scottish surname derived from the Scots language term for a shoemaker, and may refer to: * A nickname for any native inhabitant of the Royal Burgh of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders * Alexander Souter (1873–1949), Scottish bib ...

. Till the end of his teaching days, he remained one of the most popular and admired professors among Harvard Law School students as well as among faculty. He also served as director of the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers from 1977 to 1984. In academic year 1986/1987 Loss spent his final year teaching as a visiting professor at

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

. After his death, Volume 111 #8 of the

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

was dedicated to him. Loss' wife, Bernice, served as Curator of the Harvard Law School art collection, which includes dozens of paintings of English and American jurists.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loss, Louis 1914 births 1997 deaths University of Pennsylvania alumni Yale Law School alumni Harvard Law School faculty George Washington University Law School faculty Yale Law School faculty Scholars of securities law American writers of Russian descent 20th-century American lawyers People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania