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. Sun, 31 May 2026 11:30:19 +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 Some Thoughts for Boards of Directors in 2020: A Mid-Year Update – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Some Thoughts for Boards of Directors in 2020: A Mid-Year Update https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/07/02/some-thoughts-for-boards-of-directors-in-2020-a-mid-year-update/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=some-thoughts-for-boards-of-directors-in-2020-a-mid-year-update https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/07/02/some-thoughts-for-boards-of-directors-in-2020-a-mid-year-update/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2020 14:15:02 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=131058?d=20200702101502EDT Posted by Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, and William Savitt, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Thursday, July 2, 2020
Editor's Note:

Martin Lipton is a founding partner, and Steven A. Rosenblum, William Savitt are partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. This post is based on a Wachtell Lipton memorandum by Mr. Lipton, Mr. Rosenblum, Mr. Savitt, Karessa L. Cain, Hannah Clark, and Bita Assad. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here) and Socially Responsible Firms by Alan Ferrell, Hao Liang, and Luc Renneboog (discussed on the Forum here).

The past six months have been marked by a profound upheaval that has accelerated the growing focus on both the purpose of the corporation and the role of the board in overseeing and leading the corporation in ways that promote sustainable business success. For a number of years, there has been a growing sense of urgency around issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, globalization, workplace inequality and the need to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies. Then, in recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a systemic shock, which has been accompanied by a long overdue awakening regarding endemic racial injustice. The convergence of these events has accelerated the focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and stakeholder capitalism as operational and strategic imperatives that are core to corporations’ abilities to compete and succeed. The well-being of employees and other stakeholders, and the ability to engage in more sustainable ways of doing business, are not a nice-to-have luxury or a branding exercise, but rather a basic building block of corporate value. There is an essential nexus between “value” and “values.”

(more…)

]]> https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/07/02/some-thoughts-for-boards-of-directors-in-2020-a-mid-year-update/feed/ 1