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

Section 13(d) Reporting Requirements Need Updating

A year has passed since Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz submitted a petition to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requesting that it update its Schedule 13D reporting requirements to “clos[e] the Schedule 13D ten-day window between crossing the 5 percent disclosure threshold and the initial filing deadline, and adopt[] a broadened definition of ‘beneficial […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Say on Pay: Who Is Watching the Watchmen?

This column looks at four circumstances having special impact on the governance of executive pay today and then focuses on one of them, proxy advisers (with particular attention to the largest one, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)). It concludes with suggestions as to steps that might be taken to better regulate proxy advisers. Four Influential Factors […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Executive Compensation, Institutional Investors, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Risk-taking by Banks

Excessive risk-taking by banks is widely blamed as a primary factor behind the financial meltdown of 2007-2008. Yet, not much work has been done on whether banks fundamentally changed their risk-taking behavior prior to the crisis, nor has much formal work been done on whether banks’ risk-taking was “excessive” in any way. In our paper, […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Banking & Financial Institutions, Empirical Research, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Risk-taking by Banks

Thirty-Six Precatory Declassification Proposals Going to a Vote at Annual Meetings

Editor’s Note: Professor Lucian Bebchuk is the Director of the Harvard Law School Shareholder Rights Project (SRP), and Scott Hirst is the SRP’s Associate Director. Any views expressed and positions taken by the SRP and its representatives should be attributed solely to the SRP and not to Harvard Law School or Harvard University. An initial […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, HLS Research, Program News & Events | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Shareholder Votes and Proxy Advisors

In the paper, Shareholder Votes and Proxy Advisors: Evidence from Say on Pay, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, my co-authors (Yonca Ertimur of Duke University and David Oesch of the University of St. Gallen) and I examine the analyses underlying the voting recommendations issued by Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Executive Compensation, Financial Regulation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Influence of Proxy Advisory Firm Voting Recommendations

This report examines current evidence regarding the influence of third-party proxy advisory firms’ voting recommendations on shareholder proposal voting outcomes, particularly say-on-pay votes. It also presents the findings of a study, conducted by The Conference Board, NASDAQ, and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, which shows that proxy advisory firms have a […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Empirical Research, Executive Compensation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Differences Between US and UK Market Abuse Regimes

The UK Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) imposed fines of £3.651 million ($5.77 million) on Greenlight Capital Inc., a US hedge fund manager (“Greenlight”), £3.638 million ($5.74 million) on David Einhorn, Greenlight’s owner, and £350,000 ($553,000) on Andrew Osborne, a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch banker. These fines were levied in connection with Greenlight’s trading […]

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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Private Equity, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Differences Between US and UK Market Abuse Regimes

The JOBS Act and General Solicitation

President Obama signed into law this week the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act). Title II of the JOBS Act affects offerings by issuers pursuant to Regulation D under the Securities Act, as well as resales under Securities Act Rule 144A. In particular: Section 201(a)(1) of the JOBS Act directs the Securities and Exchange […]

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Posted in Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Are Overconfident CEOs Better Innovators?

In our forthcoming Journal of Finance paper, Are Overconfident CEOs Better Innovators?, we find that over the 1993 to 2003 period, CEO overconfidence is associated with riskier projects, greater investment in innovation, and greater innovation as measured by the number of patent applications and patent citations even after controlling for the amount of R&D expenditures. […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

An “Entrepreneurial” and Restructured SEC Pledges Proactive Enforcement

At the recent “SEC Speaks” conference in Washington, DC this year, Chairman Mary Schapiro and senior Enforcement officials vowed to increase investor protection through use of the SEC’s expanded authority under the Dodd-Frank Act and initiatives designed to help the SEC enforcement staff proactively detect and prevent securities law violations. In her speech, Schapiro pointed […]

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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment