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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
Why University Endowments are Large and Risky
Universities as perpetual ivory towers, though often meant as a pejorative, describes well universities’ special place in society as centers of learning with a mission distinct from that of businesses. Universities create new knowledge via research while preserving and spreading that knowledge through teaching. The social good aspect of universities makes donations critical to funding […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Institutional Investors
Tagged Endowments, Fund managers, Institutional Investors, Philanthropy, Prudence, Public interest, Risk, Risk-taking, Social capital
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Board Retirement and Tenure Policies
Investors’ increasing focus on board composition includes attention to whether boards are continuing to refresh and recruit new directors in line with the company’s changing strategic goals and risk profile. But the challenges of effective board succession planning can go beyond finding new directors whose skill sets, diversity, character, and availability match the board’s needs—they […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Board composition, Board dynamics, Board turnover, Boards of Directors, Diversity, Oversight, Risk management, Succession
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Corporate Risk-Taking and Public Duty
Although corporate risk-taking is economically necessary and even desirable, it can also be harmful. There is widespread agreement that excessive corporate risk-taking was one of the primary causes of the systemic collapse that caused the 2008-09 financial crisis. To avoid another devastating collapse, most financial regulation since the crisis is directed at reducing excessive corporate […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation
Tagged Corporate liability, Financial crisis, Financial regulation, Incentives, Liability standards, Management, Public interest, Risk, Risk assessment, Risk-taking, SIFIs, Systemic risk
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ISS 2016 Proxy Voting Policy
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is seeking feedback on policy questions as part of its process for updating its policies for the 2016 proxy season. Corporate issuers should consider communicating company views on proxy voting issues by participating in the survey, which can be accessed here. [1] Feedback is due by September 4, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Survey […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Executive Compensation, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Capital allocation, Charter & bylaws, Compensation disclosure, Director nominations, Executive Compensation, Institutional Investors, ISS, Poison pills, Proxy access, Proxy advisors, Proxy season, Proxy voting, Say on pay, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder rights, Surveys
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Do Takeover Defenses Deter Takeovers?
The G-index and E-index are workhorses of empirical corporate finance research. Each counts the number of takeover defenses a firm has and is often used as a summary measure of the firm’s protection from unsolicited takeover bids. But do these indices actually measure takeover deterrence? This is an important question because a substantial number of […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Boards of Directors, Empirical Research, Mergers & Acquisitions
Tagged Antitakeover, Governance indices, Hostile takeover, Mergers & acquisitions, Poison pills, Takeover defenses, Takeovers
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Federal Court Injunction Against SEC Prosecution
A federal judge in Manhattan recently granted a preliminary injunction against the Securities and Exchange Commission in the latest of a series of rulings raising issues with the SEC’s use of in-house proceedings before its administrative law judges (“ALJs”) rather than proceed with its charges in federal court. The SEC has prevailed more frequently in […]
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Posted in Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Dodd-Frank Act, Jurisdiction, SEC, SEC enforcement, SEC investigations, Securities enforcement, Securities litigation, U.S. federal courts
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Fiduciary Duty Proposal
With fewer than 18 months left in office, President Obama has asserted that the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) proposed fiduciary standard for retirement account advisors is a major priority. The DOL completed public hearings last week on this proposal, and we believe that the rule will be finalized early next year with the proposal’s core framework […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Broker-dealers, Debt securities, Disclosure, ERISA, Fiduciary duties, Financial advisers, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, FINRA, Investor protection, Retirement plans, Securities regulation
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Dodd-Frank Turns Five, What’s Next?
The 2008 credit crisis was the beginning of an era of unprecedented government management of the capital markets. July 21, 2015 marked the fifth anniversary of the hallmark congressional response, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”). Dodd-Frank resulted in an extraordinary revamp of the regulatory regime that governs the U.S. financial […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Derivatives, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Banks, CFPB, Cross-border transactions, Derivatives, Dodd-Frank Act, EU, Europe, Financial crisis, Financial institutions, Financial reform, Financial regulation, International governance, Investor protection, OTC derivatives, Securities regulation, SIFIs, Swaps, Systemic risk
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FTC Charges Activist Hedge Fund
Yesterday [August 24, 2015], the Federal Trade Commission announced that Dan Loeb’s Third Point had settled a complaint charging violations of the notification and waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act in connection with purchases of Yahoo! stock in 2011. The HSR Act requires that acquirors notify the federal antitrust agencies of transactions that meet applicable thresholds and observe […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement
Tagged Boards of Directors, Disclosure, FTC, Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, Hedge funds, SEC, SEC enforcement, Shareholder activism, Third Point
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Unfinished Reform in the Global Financial System
This paper offers a perspective on the challenges that the global financial system will face in the course of the next decade. While there has been significant progress since the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and the slow and uneven pressure of recovery and reform, a great deal of important work lies ahead. Part I briefly […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Compliance & ethics, Financial crisis, Financial institutions, Financial reform, Financial regulation, International governance, Risk, Securities regulation, Stress tests, Systemic risk
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