Lucian Bebchuk is the James Barr Ames Professor of Law, Economics, and Finance and Director of the Program on Corporate Governance at Harvard Law School. Leo E. Strine, Jr. is the Michael L. Wachter Distinguished Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; Senior Fellow, Harvard Program on Corporate Governance; Of Counsel, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and former Chief Justice and Chancellor, the State of Delaware.
On March 18, 2023, the corporate law and corporate governance communities lost a special person special. Rodman Ward, Jr. graduated from Harvard Law School in 1959. He was a distinguished partner in the Wilmington law firm of Prickett, Ward, Burt & Sanders for many years, during which he was one of Delaware’s leading corporate litigators and commercial lawyers.
During the 1970’s, Rod became the go-to Delaware litigator for a rising firm named Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Joe Flom asked Rod to leave his successful practice and head the first office of Skadden outside of New York, which Rod did for many years.
During this formative period of Delaware takeover law, Rod and the Skadden Wilmington office were at the center of many of the era’s key takeover cases. Among other matters, Rod argued and won the iconic case of Mills Acquisition Co. v. Macmillan, Inc., 559 A.2d 1261 (1988). To Rod’s delight, his convincing advocacy in that case led his adversary to mutter Henry II’s lament, “will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest.”