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

Weekly Roundup: May 11-17, 2018

Rethinking Successor Criminal Liability, for the First Time Posted by Mihailis Diamantis (University of Iowa), on Friday, May 11, 2018 Tags: Compliance and disclosure interpretation, Corporate crime, Corporate liability, Incentives, Liability standards, Management, Mergers & acquisitions, Misconduct, Public enforcement, Spinoffs, Succession The Investor Stewardship Group’s Governance Principles Posted by Anne Meyer, Don Cassidy, and Rajeev Kumar, Georgeson LLC, on Friday, May 11, 2018 Tags: Accountability, Board communication, Boards of Directors, Corporate Social […]

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Failure to Disclose a Cybersecurity Breach

On April 24, 2018, Altaba, formerly known as Yahoo, entered into a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), pursuant to which Altaba agreed to pay $35 million to resolve allegations that Yahoo violated federal securities laws in connection with the disclosure of the 2014 data breach of its user database. The case […]

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Do Institutional Investors Drive Corporate Social Responsibility? International Evidence

In making investment decisions, shareholders today are asked to assess, and can easily track, not only measures of a firm’s financial performance, but also metrics covering a firm’s environmental and social (E&S) performance—two components of corporate social responsibility. Yet, whether E&S performance is beneficial to the average shareholder remains controversial. In our article, we take […]

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CII Comment Letter to MSCI On Unequal Voting Structures

May 9, 2018 MSCI Equity Index Committee 7 World Trade Center 250 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 Dear Members of the MSCI Equity Index Committee: I am writing in response to MSCI’s Consultation on the Treatment of Unequal Voting Structures in the MSCI Equity Indexes (Expanded Consultation), which generally contemplates incorporating the proportion of […]

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The Unresolved Quandary of Disclosure of Executive Illness

Since at least the mid-1990s the question of disclosure by public companies about the health of their executives has been the subject of scholarly commentary and the business press. Interest in this issue was revived with the recent death of the CEO of CSX Corporation, Hunter Harrison. He joined CSX in March 2017. Press reports […]

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An Early Look at US 2018 Proxy Season Trends

The U.S. proxy season is in full swing, with about 4,000 general meetings (or approximately 60% of annual meeting volume covered by ISS research) taking place in the months of April, May, and June. As we reach the end of April, investors are making voting decisions about the highest volume of meetings, which take place […]

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Delaware’s Unwarranted Assumption in DCF Pricing

Every valuator’s kit bag includes income-based approaches such as discounted cash flow or the direct capitalization of earnings, by which to determine fair value or value using other standards. Delaware fair value proceedings have predominantly adopted the erroneous assumption that capital expenditures should equal the sum of depreciation and amortization in determining terminal value. The […]

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Discovery Trends in Litigation Finance Arrangements

The last few years have seen a sharp rise in the use of third party litigation funding for plaintiffs and their counsel. That trend has given rise to questions as to these arrangements, including their legality, practicality, terms, and—importantly for investors wishing to remain behind the scenes—the extent to which the arrangements must be disclosed. […]

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Upcoming Uptick in Bank M&A Activity?

On March 14, 2018, the U.S. Senate approved the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would repeal or modify certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act and eliminate or ease a number of regulatory burdens on superregional, regional and large community banks. Under the act, which was adopted in 2010, […]

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The Demand Review Committee: How it Works, and How it Could Work Better

In Delaware, stockholder derivative litigation follows a familiar path. The plaintiff files a complaint, alleging that demand is futile. The defendants move to dismiss under Court of Chancery Rule 23.1, arguing that the plaintiff failed to make a demand on the board of directors to bring the suit on behalf of the corporation. The motion […]

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