They can win on an argument that a firm's behavior was not based on equitable principles of trade.
In the meanwhile we continue to be committed to offering educational opportunity, on equitable principles, to a diverse range of national, European Union and international students".
Mr. Lowenfels said that under the right circumstances, investors might prevail in arbitrations by arguing that analysts' actions deviate from just and equitable principles of trade.
I think that the Harris decision was bottomed on a number of principles -- common law principles, equitable principles, constitutional principles -- but forget all of that, if you want to.
It is awarded not as a matter of right but rather at the discretion of the court and is thus largely controlled by equitable principles.
Otherwise, Finra said, a firm would risk violating a real rule, one that requires firms "to observe high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade when conducting business with their customers".
The NASD, for example, which Mr. Grubman is fighting in the Winstar case, must prove that the evidence shows Mr. Grubman failed to adhere to equitable principles of trade.
The legal hurdles that investors must clear under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 are far greater than those in arbitration, where the less arduous standard of "just and equitable principles of trade" is the guiding benchmark.
"It is difficult to conclude that some of these activities satisfy the 'high standards of commercial honor and just and equitable principles of trade' that the N.A.S.D.'s rules mandate for its membership," said Lewis D. Lowenfels, an authority on securities law at Tolins & Lowenfels in New York.
So when the NASD went after CSFB's Quattrone for spinning in March, it did so under the catch-all rubric that he failed to uphold "fair and equitable principles of trade".
