The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Fri, 01 May 2026 11:32:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png The Hypocrisy of Hedge Fund Activists – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 The Hypocrisy of Hedge Fund Activists https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2018/06/04/the-hypocrisy-of-hedge-fund-activists/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-hypocrisy-of-hedge-fund-activists https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2018/06/04/the-hypocrisy-of-hedge-fund-activists/#comments Mon, 04 Jun 2018 13:01:47 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=107727?d=20180604125752EDT Posted by Kai Haakon Liekefett, Sidley Austin LLP, on Monday, June 4, 2018
Editor's Note:

Kai Haakon Liekefett is Partner at Sidley Austin LLP. This post is based on his recent publication in the 2018 Spring Edition of Ethical Boardroom.

Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism by Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav, and Wei Jiang (discussed on the Forum here); Who Bleeds When the Wolves Bite? A Flesh-and-Blood Perspective on Hedge Fund Activism and Our Strange Corporate Governance System by Leo E. Strine, Jr. (discussed on the Forum here); and Stock Market Short-Termism’s Impact by Mark Roe, (discussed on the Forum here).

In virtually every activism campaign, hedge fund activists don the mantle of the shareholders’ champion and accuse the target company’s board and management of subpar corporate governance.

This claim to having “best practices of corporate governance” at heart is hollow—even hypocritical—as evidenced by at least three examples: hedge fund activists actually undermine the shareholder franchise, they weaken the independence and diversity of the board, and they waffle on their anti-takeover protection stance.

(more…)

]]> https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2018/06/04/the-hypocrisy-of-hedge-fund-activists/feed/ 2