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

LLC Controlling Member Fiduciary Liabilities

Last month, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an important post-trial decision that held the majority and managing member of an LLC liable for breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with the member’s management and eventual purchase of the company. The opinion unequivocally shows that the Court of Chancery considers Delaware’s LLC Act to impose […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Lessons Learned: The Inaugural Year of Say-on-Pay

One thing is for certain: Pay is unique at every company. There are as many iterations of pay as there are companies in America. This uniqueness makes our job as shareholders very challenging. For the most part, we must rely on the members of compensation committees to develop the compensation philosophy and structure in order […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Executive Compensation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Spin-offs and Reverse Morris Trusts

Even with the recent slowdown in M&A activity, spin-offs have been among the transactions of choice in the past year. With everyone from economic mainstays like ConocoPhillips and Kraft to high-profile new players like TripAdvisor engaging in separation deals in the latest round of deconsolidation, it is an opportune time for dealmakers to consider the […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Ownership Dynamics with Large Shareholders

In our paper Ownership Dynamics with Large Shareholders: an Empirical Analysis, forthcoming in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, we study ownership dynamics in a country where controlling shareholders are prevalent. We find that ownership structures are very persistent and that pyramidal structures are associated with less dispersion than other control structures. We also […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Empirical Research, International Corporate Governance & Regulation | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Ownership Dynamics with Large Shareholders

Bebchuk Wins Debate about the Contribution of Executive Pay to the Financial Crisis

Over the past two weeks, Lucian Bebchuk and René Stulz engaged in an online debate on the question: Has Executive Compensation Contributed to the Financial Crisis? Bebchuk supported a “yes” answer, and Stulz argued for a “no” answer. The debate, which was hosted by the World Bank’s All about Finance blog, was followed by a […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Executive Compensation, HLS Research, Program News & Events | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Quasi-Appraisal: The Unexplored Frontier of Stockholder Litigation?

For buyers of public companies, an obscure but increasingly evident judicial remedy known as “quasi-appraisal” is fast becoming a source of concern. Quasi-appraisal – as its name suggests – is not quite what parties expect from M&A litigation and has the capacity to upset the familiar process accompanying the sale of a public company. There […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Quasi-Appraisal: The Unexplored Frontier of Stockholder Litigation?

Analyzing Aspects of Board Composition

As the 2012 proxy season approaches, it appears that certain issues in board composition—the separation of the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) roles (along with the related issue of the independence of the chairman) and board diversity—are likely to be more prominent this year. As boards consider these and other related corporate governance issues, […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Say on Pay Votes and CEO Compensation

As we begin to analyze the first proxy season under “say on pay” in the US, it may be useful to review the evidence from the UK experience with say on pay. In the study, Say on Pay Votes and CEO Compensation: Evidence from the UK, co-authored with David Maber of University of Southern California […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Corporate Elections & Voting, Executive Compensation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Corporate Governance Practices for IPOs

This report examines the corporate governance practices of 50 U.S. companies at the time of their initial public offerings (IPOs) and finds that pressure to update governance practices at larger companies has had only a limited effect on companies at the IPO stage. To glean the governance practices of newly public companies, we analyze the […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Boards of Directors, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Corporate Elections & Voting, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Dutch Court Decision Impacts Global Securities Class Actions

Recently, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal issued an important decision in the Converium case with implications for class action suits in the United States and internationally. The decision authorizes the use of the Dutch collective-settlement statute to settle disputes on a classwide, opt-out basis. Given that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison v. National […]

Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Court Cases, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment