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. Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:53:40 +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 CPA-Wharton Zicklin Model Code of Conduct – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 The CPA-Wharton Zicklin Model Code of Conduct https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/11/28/the-cpa-wharton-zicklin-model-code-of-conduct/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-cpa-wharton-zicklin-model-code-of-conduct https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/11/28/the-cpa-wharton-zicklin-model-code-of-conduct/#comments Sat, 28 Nov 2020 14:30:55 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=134729?d=20201130141310EST Posted by Bruce F. Freed (Center for Political Accountability), Karl J. Sandstrom (Perkins Coie), and William S. Laufer (The Wharton School), on Saturday, November 28, 2020
Editor's Note:

Bruce F. Freed is president of the Center for Political Accountability; Karl J. Sandstrom is senior counsel at Perkins Coie and formerly served on the Federal Election Commission; and William S. Laufer is the Julian Aresty Endowed Professor and Director of the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. This post is based on their recent memorandum. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Corporate Political Speech: Who Decides? by Lucian Bebchuk and Robert J. Jackson Jr. (discussed on the Forum here); The Untenable Case for Keeping Investors in the Dark by Lucian Bebchuk, Robert J. Jackson Jr., James David Nelson, and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here); and The Politics of CEOs by Alma Cohen, Moshe Hazan, Roberto Tallarita, and David Weiss (discussed on the Forum here).

How can U.S. public companies protect against the risks inherent in spending to influence elections when politics is hyperpartisan, citizens are polarized and a controversy can ignite a wildfire virally and potentially affect a company’s bottom line?

The Center for Political Accountability and The Wharton School’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research have produced a new Model Code of Conduct for Corporate Political Spending to address these issues. Expanded and updated from a Model Code written by CPA in 2007, it provides a framework to guide not only companies’ political spending, but also their assessment of its impact and related ethical and societal considerations.

As the new Code’s preamble states: “Whether a company is directly contributing to or spending in elections or indirectly participating through payments to political or advocacy organizations, a code commits senior management and directors to responsible participation in our nation’s politics.

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