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Program on Corporate Governance Advisory Board
- Peter Atkins
- David Bell
- Kerry E. Berchem
- Richard Brand
- Daniel Burch
- Paul Choi
- Jesse Cohn
- Arthur B. Crozier
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino
- Steven J. Williams
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
ESG Factors and Antitrust
Recently, the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) released a Consultation Draft of proposed common standards for corporate disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors. The draft proposal highlights the need for a common framework from which to evaluate corporate actions and their impact on ESG factors. While it is unclear precisely which of the proposed […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, ESG, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Antitrust, Disclosure, Environmental disclosure, ESG, International governance, Mergers & acquisitions, Profitability, World Economic Forum
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Investors’ Expectations from the 2020 Proxy Season
For the past nine years, we have engaged governance specialists from a broad range of institutional investors to find out what they are focused on for the upcoming proxy season. This year they told us they want companies to more clearly explain how they are creating long-term value and competitive advantage. They are particularly interested […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board composition, Boards of Directors, Climate change, Diversity, ESG, Human capital, Institutional Investors, Proxy season, Risk oversight, Shareholder voting, Sustainability
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The Persistent Effect of Initial Success: Evidence from Venture Capital
One of the distinctive features of private equity as an asset class has been long-term persistence in the relative performance of private equity partnerships. Kaplan and Schoar (2005) for example, find correlations of nearly 0.5 between the returns of one fund and the next within a given private equity firm. Among venture capital (VC) funds, […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Private Equity
Tagged Capital formation, Firm performance, Information environment, IPOs, Private equity, Venture capital firms
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Want to Join a Corporate Board? Here’s How
As scrutiny of public company leadership increases, corporations are feeling the pressure to get out ahead of criticism by examining and adjusting the makeup of their boards. This makes 2020 a great time for business leaders interested in joining corporate boards—including professionals from nontraditional backgrounds and underrepresented groups—to make the jump into one of these […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board composition, Board turnover, Boards of Directors, Director qualifications, Diversity
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Carving Out IPO Protections
Thanks to a 2018 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the risk of IPO-related securities litigation has never been higher with class actions often brought by plaintiffs in both federal and state courts. With Congress not likely to act, alternatives are discussed which could eliminate liability under the Securities Act of 1933 for a company […]
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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Capital formation, Class actions, Direct listings, IPOs, Jurisdiction, PSLRA, Registration statements, Section 11, Securities enforcement, Securities litigation, Securities regulation, SLUSA, Supreme Court
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U.S. Investors’ Understanding of Workplace Policies and Practices and the Need to Change Them: Progress and Future Efforts
Under the rubric of “ESG” factors and notions such as “responsible,” “socially responsible,” “sustainable,” and “long-term” investment (and more recently, “impact” investment) increasing attention has been given to corporate conduct as it bears not only on the interests and concerns of investors but also of others whose lives and livelihoods—now and across future generations—are bound […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG
Tagged Corporate culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Disclosure, ESG, Fiduciary duties, Human capital, Human rights, Labor markets, Materiality, Stakeholders
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The Top 100 U.S. Class Action Settlements of All Time
Executive Summary During 2019, ISS Securities Class Action Services (ISS SCAS) recorded 101 approved monetary settlements filed in the United States (U.S.) valued at $3.17 billion, that are available for distribution to parties in each settlement. Only two settlements were large enough to qualify for the Top 100 list: Cobalt International Energy—$389.6 million Alibaba Group […]
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Posted in Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement
Tagged Class actions, Disgorgement, Pension funds, SEC enforcement, Securities enforcement, Securities litigation, Settlements
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Why Ownership Concentration Matters
If the global economy was a chess game, few figures would be left standing at the center of the board, while others would be relegated to the role of by-standers, observing an increasing concentration of power in the hands of an ever-dwindling number of global players. Now let us imagine that the figures left standing […]
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Posted in Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Capital markets, Common ownership, Controlling shareholders, Dual-class stock, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Ownership, Private firms, Public firms, Stakeholders
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Going the Distance
In my recently published book Going the Distance: Eurasian Trade and the Rise of the Business Corporation, 1400–1700 (published by Princeton University Press as part of its The Princeton Economic History of the Western World) I explains why the business corporation first developed in the context of long-distance Eurasian trade, why around the year 1600, […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Corporate forms, England, Europe, International governance, Legal history, Netherlands, Social networks, UK
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