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

Board Oversight of Strategic Risk

Strategic risk — which may be defined as the risk to the achievement of a company’s strategic plan — is at the forefront of any board’s agenda. While boards have always focused on the oversight of strategic risk, the recent financial and economic crisis has led companies and boards to refine, and in some cases […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Financial Crisis, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Women on Boards: Review & Outlook

The world has changed in the past 10 years. Companies can go from obscurity to an estimated $100 billion market cap (Facebook) or from zero to $1 billion in revenue very quickly (Groupon did it in two years), or from near collapse in the late ‘90s to become one of the world’s most valuable companies […]

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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

2012 Proxy Season Political Spending Shareholder Resolutions

Companies are once again being engaged on political sending, and preliminary results for this proxy season show strong, if not stronger, support. Coordinated by the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), the shareholder resolution focuses on disclosure of political spending from corporate funds, including payments to trade associations and 501c4 organizations; disclosure of management decision making […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Need for Both Strong Regulators and Strong Laws

In the paper, The Need for Both Strong Regulators and Strong Laws: Evidence from a Natural Experiment, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, I analyze whether strong law is effective in the presence of weak regulatory institutions. This is a live-issue for policy setters as they attempt to reform the financial system to […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Can JP Morgan Transparently Police Itself?

Editor’s Note: Ben W. Heineman, Jr. is a former GE senior vice president for law and public affairs and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s schools of law and government. This post is based on an article that appeared in the Harvard Business Review online. In the wake of its significant trading losses (now reportedly […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Banking & Financial Institutions, Executive Compensation, Op-Eds & Opinions | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Delaware Decisions: Data Points, Not Doctrine

Delaware courts often take an expansive approach to decision-making, offering detailed commentary on the facts and the underlying law in many key M&A cases. While these lengthy opinions can offer market participants useful insights into best practices for future deals, it is equally important that dealmakers not overreact to observations that should, and no doubt […]

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Posted in Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , | Comments Off on Delaware Decisions: Data Points, Not Doctrine

A Proposal to Repeal Exclusive Forum at Chevron

Editor’s Note: The following post comes to us from Richard H. Koppes, administrative officer at the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys and former general counsel of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. This post is based on an article by Mr. Koppes in the NAPPA Report. When I left CalPERS in 1996 after ten […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Op-Eds & Opinions | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Global Financial Inclusion Indicators

In a recent World Bank working paper, Measuring Financial Inclusion: The Global Findex Database, we provide the first analysis of the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database, a new set of indicators that measure how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. Well-functioning financial systems serve a vital purpose, offering savings, […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Legislative & Regulatory Developments | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Global Financial Inclusion Indicators

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

Editor’s Note: Ben W. Heineman, Jr. is a former GE senior vice president for law and public affairs and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s schools of law and government. This post is based on an article that appeared in Corporate Counsel. Federal enforcement authorities should give much more systematic credit to effective corporate compliance […]

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Developing Insightful Oversight

So much of the architecture of corporate governance has been the subject of recent federal reforms (SOX, Dodd-Frank, FCPA expansion, etc.) that it is easy to forget that those enactments leave a lot of the governance landscape unaddressed. Clearly, federal requirements for compulsory CEO and CFO financial statement certifications, automatic clawback of senior executive stock […]

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Posted in Boards of Directors, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment