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

Celebrity Stock Market

We typically think of stock markets as a mechanism for connecting investors who buy and sell shares of ownership in public companies. This helps distribute the successes and share the risks of these companies across a wider range of individuals. Talented individuals with business ideas often get venture capital or other forms of investor financing […]

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The Standard of Review for Challenged Director Compensation

On May 31, 2019, Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a decision refusing to dismiss a stockholder’s fiduciary duty claims challenging the compensation of Goldman Sachs’ board of directors.  The case highlights the type of claim potentially available to stockholders in challenging board (and sometimes executive) compensation, and it provides […]

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Scarlet Letters: Remarks before the American Enterprise Institute

Thank you, Ben [Zycher]. I will begin with the standard disclaimer. My remarks represent my views and not necessarily those of the Commission or my fellow Commissioners. I will next address a question that is undoubtedly in the mind of at least one person in the audience. Did her parents really do that to her? […]

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Upstream Liability, Entities as Boards, and the Theory of the Firm

Directors have fiduciary duties, and the most litigated and most demanding of those duties is the duty of loyalty. The key questions for duty of loyalty litigation are director-by-director questions: Did this particular director have a conflict? Is it futile to make a demand on that particular director? What does it mean to ask director-by-director […]

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OECD Corporate Governance Factbook 2019

The 2019 edition of the OECD Corporate Governance Factbook (the “Factbook”) contains comparative data and information across 49 different jurisdictions including all G20, OECD and Financial Stability Board members. The information is presented and commented in 40 tables and 51 figures covering a broad range of institutional, legal and regulatory provisions. The Factbook provides an […]

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The Timing of Schedule 13D

In the field of corporate law, timing is everything. Perhaps in no area is this more the case than in disclosure—specifically, the disclosure obligations of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. Implemented by a phalanx of SEC rules, the Act carefully prescribes how and when an investor must make public its equity position in […]

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Rent-A-Center: A $1.37 BN Reminder on Reminders

Rent-A-Center Inc., a Texas based consumer goods rent-to-own retailer (R-A-C) most famous for enabling generations of North Americans to fill their homes with furniture, electronics and household appliances, agreed in June 2018 to a buyout by affiliates of the private equity firm, Vintage Capital Management, LLC (Vintage) in a deal valuing the R-A-C at $1.37 […]

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Statement on the Adoption of Capital, Margin, and Segregation Requirements for Security-Based Swap Dealers and Major Security-Based Swap Participants

The Commission has adopted final rules governing the capital, margin, and segregation requirements applicable to security-based swap dealers (SBSDs) and major security-based swap participants under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. Completion of this rulemaking represents a significant milestone in the Commission’s implementation of its regulatory framework for security-based swaps. I am grateful for Chairman […]

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An Activist Gold Rush?

Momentum is building for M&A across the gold industry driven by the market, balance sheets, and shareholders. Behemoths Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: GOLD, TSX: ABX) and Newmont Mining Corp. (now Newmont Goldcorp Corp. (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT)) have grabbed headlines with acquisitions of Randgold Resources Ltd. and Goldcorp Inc. respectively, and the junior and intermediate […]

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Weekly Roundup: June 14–20, 2019

Defined Contribution Plans and the Challenge of Financial Illiteracy Posted by Jill E. Fisch (University of Pennsylvania Law School), Annamaria Lusardi (George Washington University), and Andrea Hasler (George Washington University), on Friday, June 14, 2019 Tags: 401(k), Corporate liability, ERISA, Information asymmetries, Investor protection, Liability standards, Retirement plans Exchanging Views on Exchange-Traded Funds Posted by Hester M. Peirce, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, […]

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