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

Top 250 Report on Long-Term Incentive Grant Practices for Executives

In 2016, external forces, including Dodd-Frank Act rules, Say-on-Pay and proxy advisors, continue to influence the executive compensation landscape. Meanwhile, internally, major overhaul to long-term incentive plans at large companies over the years have resulted in most plan designs and practices now more closely aligned with a pay-for-performance philosophy. With Say-on-Pay in its sixth year […]

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Mergers and Acquisitions—A Brief Look Back and a View Forward

M&A activity in 2016 had a slow start and a strong finish, reaching $3.7 trillion globally, behind 2015, but the third-busiest year on record. Deals involving U.S. targets were strong at just under $1.7 trillion, and represented a share of total global deal value comparable to 2015. Overall, 2016 had its share of large deals, […]

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Posted in Financial Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications, Private Equity, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Mergers and Acquisitions—A Brief Look Back and a View Forward

NYDFS’ Revision of Proposed Cybersecurity Regulation for Financial Services Companies

On Dec. 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued revisions to its proposed regulation that would impose new, rigorous cybersecurity requirements on banks, consumer lenders, money transmitters, insurance companies and certain other financial service providers (each a “Covered Entity”) regulated by the NYDFS (the “Proposed Regulation”). The Proposed Regulation’s effective date […]

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Legal Institutions and IPO Puzzles

Initial public offerings (IPOs) are often underpriced, so that an investor in a portfolio of new equity issues can expect a substantial above-market rate of return; in the long term, prices adjust and if anything there is overpricing. The puzzling and well-known phenomenon is international in scope, and even more pronounced in Asian capital markets […]

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Moving Beyond Shareholder Primacy: Can Mammoth Corporations Like ExxonMobil Benefit Everyone?

The New York Times recently took issue with Rex Tillerson, the President-elect’s nominee for Secretary of State, and the current CEO of ExxonMobil. Why? “Tillerson Put Company’s Needs Over U.S. Interests,” accused the front page headline. The article details how the company puts shareholders’ interests before the interests of the United States and of impoverished […]

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Posted in Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Moving Beyond Shareholder Primacy: Can Mammoth Corporations Like ExxonMobil Benefit Everyone?

Constitutionality of SEC’s Administrative Law Judges Headed to Supreme Court?

On December 27, 2016, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the appointment of administrative law judges by the Office of Administrative Law Judges of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This holding is in direct conflict with an August 9, 2016 decision by the District […]

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The Ivory Tower on Corporate Governance

In 1976, [Directors & Boards]’s founding year, two influential academic works in corporate governance appeared: Berkeley law professor Melvin Eisenberg urged transforming the board from an advisory role to a monitoring model and mandating significant internal control systems, while University of Rochester economists Michael Jensen and William Meckling portrayed the firm as a nexus of contracts […]

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Sustainability Practices: 2016 Edition

The Conference Board recently released the 2016 edition of Sustainability Practices, a comprehensive dataset and analysis capturing the most recent disclosure of environmental and social practices of business corporations. The study reviews a total of 75 environmental and social practices of publicly traded corporations included in the S&P Global 1200 index. For benchmarking purposes, data […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Executive Compensation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sustainability Practices: 2016 Edition

Compensation Season 2017

Boards of directors and their compensation committees will soon shift attention to the 2017 compensation season. Key considerations in the year ahead include the following: Regulatory Rollback and Tax Law Changes Companies should closely monitor statutory and regulatory developments in the new year. The president-elect and Congressional leaders have articulated an ambitious agenda to reduce […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Executive Compensation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Compensation Season 2017

Global and Regional Trends in Corporate Governance for 2017

Russell Reynolds Associates recently interviewed numerous institutional and activist investors, pension fund managers, public company directors and other governance professionals about the trends and challenges that public company boards will face in 2017. Our conversations yielded a wide array of perspectives about the forces that are driving change in the corporate governance landscape. The changing […]

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