Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Climate Activism: Status Check and Opportunities for Public Companies

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was established in 1992 with the goal of preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system. The Paris Climate Agreement was the most recent attempt to establish international cooperation over climate change. Although the United States withdrew from the agreement effective November 4, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden […]

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Financing Year in Review: From Crisis to Comeback

The Covid pandemic and fears of a global recession roiled financial markets around the world in March and April: U.S. investment grade risk premiums reached their highest levels since the Great Recession and investment grade bond and commercial paper markets briefly froze; the leveraged loan and high-yield bond markets seized shut; and the amount of […]

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The Rise of Growth Equity—Connecting PE and VC

Emerging companies have historically been backed by venture capital funds, but as Europe’s startup scene matures, involvement by more traditional private equity investors is growing, particularly in the tech, consumer, and digital health sectors. The number of PE investments in emerging companies has increased year on year, with investments in companies such as Wolt, Moonbug […]

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CEO Succession Practices in the Russell 3000 and S&P 500

CEO Succession Practices in the Russell 3000 and S&P 500: 2020 Edition provides a comprehensive set of benchmarking data and analysis on CEO turnover to support boards of directors and executives in the fulfillment of their succession planning and leadership development responsibilities. The study reviews succession event announcements about chief executive officers made at Russell […]

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Weekly Roundup: January 8–14, 2020

The New Paradigm in the C-Suite and the Boardroom Posted by Martin Lipton, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Friday, January 8, 2021 Tags: Boards of Directors, ESG, Institutional Investors, ISS, Long-Term value, Proxy advisors, Short-termism, Stakeholders, Stewardship, World Economic Forum A Letter to the SEC Chairman Posted by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), on Friday, January 8, 2021 Tags: Anti-corruption, Investor protection, SEC, SEC enforcement, SEC rulemaking, Section 1504, Securities enforcement, Securities regulation, Transparency Corporate Governance […]

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DeFi and the Future of Finance

While the popular media focuses on Bitcoin reaching record highs, there is something else happening in the crypto space that is largely under the radar screen. It is called DeFi or Decentralized Finance, and we examine its structure, opportunities and risks in our recent paper, DeFi and the Future of Finance. Consider the state of […]

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Compensation Season 2021

COVID-19 dominated the compensation landscape in 2020 and will remain a key factor in 2021. The most successful companies have proactively managed compensation programs in response to the pandemic, while maintaining a laser focus on attracting and retaining executive talent. We identify below some of the key factors that will impact the 2021 compensation season. […]

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The SPAC Explosion: Beware the Litigation and Enforcement Risk

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have exploded in popularity. These so-called “blank check” companies are used as vehicles to take companies public without going through a traditional IPO process. In the life cycle of a SPAC, a management team forms a new public company (the SPAC) for the express purpose of identifying and acquiring an […]

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CEO’s Letter on SSGA 2021 Proxy Voting Agenda

I hope this letter finds you and your colleagues safe and healthy. Each year, State Street Global Advisors engages with investee companies such as yours about issues of importance to investors that we will be focusing on in the coming months. We do so for a simple reason: as one of the world’s largest investment […]

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Reconsidering the Evolutionary Erosion Account of Corporate Fiduciary Law

My paper, Reconsidering the Evolutionary Erosion Account of Corporate Fiduciary Law, takes a new look at what has been the dominant account of corporate law’s duty of loyalty, an account that originated with Professor Harold Marsh, Jr.’s foundational paper, Are Directors Trustees? Conflicts of Interest and Corporate Morality, published in 1966. Marsh asserted that twentieth […]

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