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. Sat, 16 May 2026 11:30:10 +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 Recent Developments Affecting US Public Companies and Boards – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Recent Developments Affecting US Public Companies and Boards https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/05/14/recent-developments-affecting-us-public-companies-and-boards/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=recent-developments-affecting-us-public-companies-and-boards https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/05/14/recent-developments-affecting-us-public-companies-and-boards/#respond Thu, 14 May 2026 11:30:04 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=180915?d=20260513162315EDT Posted by Julia Thompson, Keith Halverstam, and Jenna Cooper, Latham & Watkins LLP, on Thursday, May 14, 2026
Editor's Note:

Julia Thompson, Keith Halverstam, and Jenna Cooper are Partners at Latham & Watkins LLP. This post is based on a Latham memorandum by Ms. Thompson, Mr. Halverstam, Ms. Cooper, Charles Ruck, Ryan Maierson, and Joel Trotter.

Capital Strategy Has Become a Core Oversight Responsibility

Capital strategy has emerged as an important issue for boards. The financing landscape has shifted materially in recent years and remains dynamic. Capital has diversified beyond traditional banks to include private credit and insurance capital, and a robust hybrid instrument market now sits between equity and debt, even for investment grade companies. In stressed environments, liability management techniques can provide additional flexibility. These changes affect not only liquidity and cost of capital but also strategic flexibility, M&A readiness, exposure to shareholder activism, and overall enterprise resilience. As a result, boards are overseeing capital structure as an ongoing governance matter rather than engaging only when a financing need becomes imminent. Regular board-level oversight includes ensuring management maintains a continuous, comprehensive view of financing options, regularly evaluates alternatives, and stress tests the durability of the capital structure under a range of scenarios. Latham’s Capital Strategies Practice supports this mandate by bringing an independent, market-wide perspective to capital structure decisions, complementing traditional transaction-focused legal advice.

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