Brownstein, Mirvis, and Rowe on the Case against Shareholder Interference

Three senior partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz—Andrew Brownstein, Theodore N. Mirvis, and Paul K. Rowe–spoke last week at the Law School’s Law and Finance Seminar on the case against shareholder interference. The speakers began by posing a series of questions and challenges to those seeking governance reforms–and warned against making significant changes to a governance system that, in their view, has performed remarkably well over a long period of time.

The talk built on several articles and memoranda the speakers have published on corporate governance along with their partners William Savitt, Martin Lipton, Eric S. Robinson, and Mark Gordon. Those pieces include Bebchuk’s “Case For Increasing Shareholder Power”: An Opposition; Private Equity and the Board of Directors; Classified Boards Once Again Prove Their Value to Shareholders in Recent Takeover Battle; Deconstructing American Business, and Deconstructing American Business II.

A video of the panel discussion is available online here. (video no longer available) The questions and challenges the speakers set forth at the outset of their talk can be found here.