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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 Christine Davine
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Byron Georgiou
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino Jonathan Watkins
- Steven J. Williams
HLS Faculty & Senior Fellows
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Remarks by Commissioner Crenshaw on Climate Pledges
Thank you Daniella [Gibbs Léger], I am thrilled to be here today. And I want to commend the Center for American Progress and the Sierra Club for the hard work and dedication behind the important research that is being recognized today [Dec. 14, 2021]. Climate change is a crisis that poses an existential threat to […]
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Posted in ESG, Practitioner Publications, Regulators Materials, Securities Regulation, Speeches & Testimony
Tagged Climate change, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Institutional Investors, Say on climate, SEC, SEC rulemaking, Securities regulation, Sustainability
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The Corporate Director’s Guide to ESG
For many, the term ESG (environmental, social, governance), conjures notions of investors chasing feel-good stories of sustainability, diversity, and ethics. But given the heightened interests from various stakeholders, corporate directors know ESG is much more. Far from being just window dressing, making organizations appear socially responsible to the outside world, there are real risks at […]
Click here to read the complete postSEC Adopts Mandatory Universal Proxy in Contested Elections
In early January 2015, hedge fund activist Trian launched a closely followed proxy fight against DuPont, claiming that the company had underperformed and that it should, among other things, be broken up into three parts. DuPont responded that, through implementation of its own strategic plan, it had delivered total shareholder return and cumulative capital return […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Boards of Directors, Institutional Investors, Proxy contests, Proxy voting, SEC, SEC rulemaking, Securities regulation, Shareholder voting, Universal proxy ballots
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Statement by Commissioners Peirce and Roisman on Chair Gensler’s Regulatory Agenda
While Chair Gary Gensler’s newly released regulatory agenda is ambitious in scope, we are disappointed with its content. It fails to include any items intended to facilitate capital formation and misses opportunities to foster fair, orderly, and efficient markets and further investor protection. Instead the agenda is brimming with plans to redo recently completed rules, […]
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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Regulators Materials, Securities Regulation, Speeches & Testimony
Tagged Capital formation, Cryptocurrency, Investor protection, Proxy advisors, SEC, SEC rulemaking, Securities enforcement, Securities regulation, Shareholder proposals
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ESG: Hyperboles and Reality
ESG has risen from an obscure and niche concept to a widely used term around the world. When I started working in this area, most (if not all) of my students at Harvard Business School had no idea what ESG meant. Nowadays, they use the term ESG in the classroom taking as a given that […]
Click here to read the complete postKeeping Pace with the Climate Transition
Climate change has already become one of the most prominent line items on the world’s agenda. But we believe that its impact on the global macroeconomy is just beginning and increasing in pace. In our view, investors should think of the transition to a low-carbon economy as a multi-dimensional shock event, spread out over time, […]
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Posted in ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Asset management, Climate change, Engagement, ESG, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Stewardship
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DOL Proposed Investment/Proxy ERISA Regulations
The U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) on October 14, 2021, released a new Proposed Regulation (the “Proposed Regulation”) generally relating to the prudence and loyalty duties under the fiduciary rules of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and to the voting of proxies. The Proposed Reg ulation is the latest attempt […]
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Posted in ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Climate change, DOL, ERISA, ESG, Fiduciary rule, Institutional Investors, Joe Biden, Proxy voting, Retirement plans, Securities regulation, Shareholder voting, Sustainability
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Stocks for the Long Run? Evidence from a Broad Sample of Developed Markets
Prior research suggests that investing in stocks is an extremely attractive option for investors and institutions with long holding periods. For example, Mehra and Prescott (1985) demonstrate that the historical equity premium in the United States (U.S.) is quite large, and Siegel (2014) documents that long-term losses from diversified stock market investments in the U.S. […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research
Tagged Capital markets, Equity capital, Index funds, Investor horizons, Long-Term value, Shareholder value
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Directors Challenged to Respond to New DOJ Corporate Fraud Initiative
The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) new policy on corporate fraud enforcement and individual accountability is a significant development around risk, and corporate directors should be aware. As Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco announced on October 28, the new policy represents a return to the stricter enforcement posture of the administration of Barack H. Obama. […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Accountability, Boards of Directors, Compliance & ethics, Corporate crime, Director liability, Disclosure, DOJ, Liability standards, Misconduct, Risk, Securities enforcement
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Silicon Valley and S&P 100: A Comparison of 2021 Proxy Season Results
In the 2021 proxy season, 143 of the technology and life sciences companies included in the Fenwick – Bloomberg Law Silicon Valley 150 List (SV 150) and 99 of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 100 (S&P 100) held annual meetings that typically included voting for the election of directors, ratifying the selection of auditors of […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Institutional Investors, Proxy season, Proxy voting, Say on pay, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder voting, Tech companies
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