Enemy of the SPAC: Law Professor Takes Deal Sponsors to Court

Stanford Law Professor Michael Klausner toiled in academic obscurity for decades until 2020, when he wrote a paper slamming special purpose acquisition companies as a rip-off of everyday investors.

Now he’s taking his newfound cache to Delaware Chancery Court. He’ll argue in a Friday hearing that blank-check company GigCapital3 Inc. did what SPACs across the industry do—hide from investors how much money they give to insiders through the promise of nearly free shares.

“Somebody’s got to say, I’m paying $10 to invest $5 or $6,” Klausner said in an interview. “If that’s fully disclosed, which I think it should be ...