The strangest thing about federal criminal justice today may be that companies are offered a clearer path to redemption than people are.

When a corporation commits a crime, the U.S. Justice Department increasingly offers something close to a path to …

The next big episode of distress in the financial system may not begin inside a bank. Instead, it may start with a margin call, a failed repo rollover, or an open-ended fund facing redemptions.Wherever it comes from, though, the fallout …

The Trump Administration’s May 19 executive order[1] on fintech innovation (the “Order”) seeks to force a sharp shift in the regulatory relationship between banks and other federally regulated financial services providers and what it calls “fintech”—any financial service offered …

Stablecoins are marketed as a “killer app” that can perform three roles simultaneously.[1] They aspire to operate as a money-market instrument with a state-of-the-art holding system.[2] They not only bridge real-world accounts and blockchain wallets but aim to …

ExxonMobil’s proposal to change its domicile from New Jersey to Texas offers an important test of a principle that, in a forthcoming article, Corporate Disenfranchisement, Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci and I call the Leopard Paradigm. The paradigm holds …

When the Securities and Exchange Commission proposes a new rule, it follows a “notice-and-comment” process. It first discloses the proposed changes, then it invites constituents to write comment letters addressing those changes, and finally it settles on what to adopt. …

For decades, public corporations have generally treated Delaware as the state of choice for  incorporation. Exxon Mobil’s proposed reincorporation from New Jersey to Texas challenges that approach in a distinctive way: Exxon was never a Delaware corporation at all.

That …

In a forthcoming article, we examine the inequities and disparities in federal sentencing for insider trading convictions. The article examines the causes, symptoms and reach of this phenomenon and recommends corrective measures, including a deemphasis of financial harm-based sentencing enhancements …

On May 11, two of the world’s most valuable private companies all but admitted that the AI private market boom has been built on shaky legal ground.

OpenAI announced that unauthorized transfers of its equity, which were made through special …

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations have moved from the periphery of corporate governance into the heart of fiduciary decision-making. What began as a largely voluntary framework for assessing non-financial risks has become a central point of legal, political, and …

Since the Second World War, the U.S. dollar has been the dominant global currency for trade, settlement, and reserve purposes. As other countries seek to move away from the dollar system, key U.S. policymakers believe that the rise of dollar …

What should fiduciary duty require when new technology allows corporate directors to see risk more clearly? Though corporate law has long assumed that directors must make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, artificial intelligence and emerging quantum-computing tools may change what …

On April 7, the Federal Reserve chair and U.S. Treasury secretary called an emergency meeting with America’s top bank CEOs. The reason: an AI model capable of autonomously hacking major corporations, finding thousands of software vulnerabilities no human ever caught, …

Delaware’s corporate law grants officers and directors broad discretion, subject to one condition: Get the process right.  Want to pay the CEO millions of dollars?  Go ahead—just be sure you have a compensation committee empowered to negotiate the pay package …

With the U.S. Department of Labor’s recent proposed rule, Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives, retail investors’ access to private assets comes ever closer to reality, though not without controversy. The battle lines are unsurprising: Private asset managers …

ExxonMobil’s board has recommended that shareholders vote at the May 27 annual meeting to approve the company’s change in domicile from New Jersey to Texas—a move that has triggered debate about whether Texas’s recent corporate-governance reforms weaken shareholder rights relative …

Corporate governance is often described as cooperative. On this account, shareholders, directors, officers, employees, suppliers, customers, communities, and other constituencies are members of a team, each contributing to a common enterprise, and each entitled to some consideration in the distribution …

In January 2026, the Delaware Supreme Court issued an en banc decision in J&J v. Fortis, a high-profile earnout dispute arising from Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of Auris Health, involving up to $2.35 billion in contingent payments tied to regulatory …

In January 2026, Dudley DeBosier—a leading Louisiana personal-injury firm—announced a high-profile private equity partnership. The deal used a management services organization, or MSO: a split-entity workaround in which attorneys keep ownership of the law firm while a PE-backed vehicle …

For more than eight decades, Rule 14a-8 (the SEC’s shareholder proposal rule) has been both a solvent and an irritant in U.S. corporate governance. The rule sought to ease management’s hold on the agenda of the company-funded proxy process by …

Few issues in corporate governance have become as politically charged as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. What began as a framework for integrating ESG factors into investment and risk analysis has, in recent years, turned into a broader ideological …

Corporate short-termism–where companies sacrifice long—term value for transient boosts in short-term stock prices—has long been a hot topic of debate in corporate law and political discourse. Critics argue that activist hedge funds, performance-based compensation, and quarterly reporting have forced public …

When does a shareholder become powerful enough to control a corporate vote?

That question has taken on unusual importance in Delaware. Unlike ordinary shareholders, controlling shareholders are subject to fiduciary duties. And after litigation over Elon Musk’s compensation package, in …

Silicon Valley Bank’s failure exposed many familiar weaknesses: uninsured deposits, interest-rate risk, a concentrated depositor base, and weak interest-rate hedging. But the more revealing lesson lies one layer deeper. The supervisory failure was not simply that regulators missed red flags …

Shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8 have played a major role in transforming corporate America, bringing to the fore everything from non-staggered boards and majority voting for directors to disclosure concerning diversity and lobbying expenditures.  Most shareholder proposals are “precatory”—advisory rather …

The  GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, provides a federal regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers, including a carveout that, under certain conditions, allows states to oversee  issuers of less than $10 billion. After the law went into effect, the …

The equitable remedy known as piercing the corporate veil lacks coherence and consistency. No one knows when or why a request to hold shareholders personally liable for a judgment against their corporation might occur. This uncertainty persists despite numerous, comprehensive …

The charters for Boeing and Google, two of the largest corporations in history, run just seven and eleven pages long, respectively. These charters say almost nothing about the nature of the company’s business and do not contain policies on business …

Over the past decade, many companies have embraced the language and practices of stakeholder governance. Corporate mission statements, sustainability reports, and ESG disclosures frequently highlight commitments to employees, communities, and environmental sustainability. Boards authorize charitable-giving programs, diversity initiatives, and policies …

Difficulties in valuing the assets and liabilities of the largest banking organizations aggravated the 2007-08 financial crisis.  Regulation under the Dodd-Frank Act  sought to increase transparency and reduce complexity among these institutions.  With the benefit of significant hindsight, it is …

For nearly a decade, debates over ESG – environmental, social, and governance – disclosures have dominated corporate law and securities regulation. Should companies be required to disclose information about climate risk, workforce diversity, or governance practices? At first glance, this …

Early-stage startups need to raise small amounts of money quickly, cheaply, and repeatedly, often when they have very little to show to prospective investors. At this stage, it is far too early to negotiate the terms traditional venture deals are …

A corporation is perpetual by default – but its lifespan can easily be limited through either a charter provision or contract. Does anyone actually do that? Indeed they do – and for good reason – as I explain in a …

Around the time Tesla’s board granted CEO Elon Musk a massive 10-year, $2.3 billion equity award, a small number of companies offered similar “mega grants” to their CEOs. The outcome of Musk’s grant is known, but the outcomes of these …

The new optional legal form for startup companies, EU Inc., which launched last week as a so-called 28th regime, is a strategic instrument aimed at promoting incorporation, innovation, and growth across the European Union. In a period of increasing geopolitical …

In principle, a potential acquirer may use private information to initiate a deal and offer to pay for the target with temporary overpriced shares. Analogous to insider trading in secondary equity markets, and irrespective of how the deal plays out, …

Under the law and practice of corporate governance, the board of directors is the keystone of corporate accountability. Yet, in large, modern corporations with extensive management hierarchies, authority is widely dispersed among senior managers below board level. In a recent …

Governments sometimes use private ordering – the delegation of regulatory authority to the private sector – in regulating commerce, finance, and business more generally. In a new article, available here, I focus on one of the federal government’s most …

In early 2020, a federal judge in San Francisco issued an unusual order: He compelled DoorDash, the food-delivery company, to submit to the arbitration proceedings it had itself contractually required. Over 5,000 delivery drivers had filed individual arbitration demands – …

In recent years, the SEC has faced scrutiny of its actions under the arbitrary-and-capricious standard of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which requires the Commission to adequately justify its rules. In particular, critics have questioned the SEC’s economic analysis of …

In two forthcoming book chapters, I argue for maintaining conceptual clarity about the difference between people – that is, the natural kind of the human species – and persons created as artificial entities with rights (and often but not always …

For the last decade, the legal effort to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its climate denialism has been advanced through tort and consumer protection law. Plaintiffs asserted claims of public nuisance and consumer fraud, alleging that “Big Oil” …

Scholars have long debated the merits and legitimacy of “corporate democracy.” But largely absent from the debate is what courts mean by “corporate democracy”– or at least how courts use the phrase. In a forthcoming article, I analyze the more …

In late 2025, when Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) was actively considering sale of the company, Netflix and Paramount emerged as likely purchasers. Knowing that a merger with either itself or Netflix would raise antitrust concerns, Paramount included in its offer …

The Delaware Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moelis & Company v. West Palm Beach Firefighters’ Pension Fund distinguished “void” corporate acts from “voidable” ones in a way that will significantly affect future stockholder litigation.[1]  The distinction is important because …

Coercive, non-pro rata debt restructurings – widely known as “liability management exercises” (LMEs), just like their pro rata siblings – have become a central tool for distressed borrowers. Proponents of the non-pro rata restructuring often argue that it gives the …

Many companies approaching an initial public offering face a familiar concern: whether the underwriters responsible for marketing the deal are fully aligned with the issuer’s interests. IPO underpricing – the tendency for shares to jump in price on the first …

Why do we still mark the beginning of corporate existence with the filing of a charter?  Why file charters publicly when the content is overwhelmingly focused on internal stock rights?  Why does the leading jurisdiction of Delaware make charters so …

The Modigliani-Miller (MM) Theorem and the Coase Theorem are two of the most important contributions to modern economics.  Their insights earned Nobel Prizes for their authors, with MM transforming how economists and legal scholars analyze corporate financial policy and Coase …

Bankruptcy has long been regarded as a gloomy area of law, one that fits uneasily with the heady optimism usually associated with start-ups.  At the same time, start-up lawyers need to understand how downside scenarios will play out, both inside …

Too often, for-profit and nonprofit boards are passive, deferential, or both. Their failures to engage their critical faculties have resulted in serious harms as diverse as Boeing planes crashing and the NRA squandering millions of dollars. Boeing’s massive safety failures …

Corporate oversight under Delaware law rests on the two bases for liability, each identified in In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation (“Caremark”) and reaffirmed in Stone v. Ritter. The first is  a failure to implement any reporting …

If you know only one thing about banks and bank regulation, it’s probably encapsulated in the statement “FDIC-Insured.” For almost a century, this statement and others like it have been displayed at the entrance to every bank branch, on the …

The Paris Agreement’s commitment to aligning finance with efforts toward net-zero emissions has catalyzed an unprecedented shift in financial markets. Sustainable finance has evolved from niche to mainstream, with financial institutions increasingly incorporating environmental considerations into their decisions. By withdrawing …

Imagine you are the CEO of a fast-growing company that needs public capital to grow. You have a real business today, but much of your value depends on what you haven’t built yet: new products, new capacity, and a multi-year …

Boards face increasingly demanding requirements for oversight. It is no longer enough to have a compliance program on paper. Regulators, courts, and investors expect boards to ensure that compliance systems function to prevent, detect, and respond to misconduct. That expectation …

In May 2025, an important and largely unnoticed development occurred in the corporate-law competition among states. In response to Delaware’s SB 21, Nevada enacted AB239, extending its exculpation statute — which had previously shielded only directors and officers from …

The 2026 edition of the annual Chief Legal Officers Survey (“Survey”) from the Association of Corporate Counsel validates the continuing evolution of senior in-house corporate counsel from strictly technical experts to also wise counselors and business partners to management. In …

A fundamental misconception pervades American law’s engagement with blockchain technology. State legislatures, federal regulators, courts, and private market participants routinely treat the technical capabilities of blockchain systems as sources of legal rights and obligations, collapsing the distinction between what code …

Legal scholars have long opined on the social benefits of the core securities laws. The chief benefits of issuer-disclosure law and securities-specific fraud law identified to date relate to their positive effects on stock-price accuracy. A price-accuracy theory in support …

New leadership at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is making it a priority to reverse the decline in the number of U.S public companies. Its method: reversing regulatory creep and reducing the onerous burdens of compliance that deter all …

“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” This maxim from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s classic novel, The Leopard, captures the central insight of our new article. In the novel, a Sicilian aristocrat watches …

When a core product feature depends on an external AI model operated by another company, part of the product’s behavior and customer experience is effectively outsourced. That changes what the company can promise customers, what it can test before launch, …

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into mergers and acquisitions (M&A), supporting negotiations, determining the value of the target, drafting relevant contracts – and, most important, helping perform due diligence. Yet, its role in this context raises questions about …

Public companies routinely unlock capital by monetizing nontraditional assets. Future receivables are securitized. Intellectual property is pledged as collateral. Long-dated cash flows are sliced, priced, and traded. Even reputational assets increasingly appear – implicitly, if not formally – on corporate …

Shareholder-rights advocates are mobilizing. The Council of Institutional Investors, representing pension funds with assets under management of approximately $5 trillion, has written to the SEC demanding that the agency resume substantive review of shareholder proposal no-action requests. The International …

In a new article, we show that jurisdictions treat crypto-derivatives inconsistently, resulting in a regulatory landscape that raises prudential and investor-protection concerns. This divergence is particularly striking given that crypto-derivatives overwhelmingly replicate traditional derivatives in their contractual structure, payoff …

The shareholder proposal process is currently the subject of renewed scrutiny and critique. Detractors have raised concerns about cost, legitimacy, and federalism. The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced its intent to conduct a formal rulemaking to alter the shareholder …

Understanding top managers’ behavioral quirks is sometimes key to predicting their corporate policy choices. Often overlooked is the speed with which managers and their companies report good news versus bad news.[1] Which do they tend to report faster? The …

Independent monitorships have become a familiar feature of modern corporate enforcement. Once largely confined to court-appointed special masters in public law litigation, monitors are now routinely imposed in corporate settlements with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, …

In boardrooms, courtrooms, and regulatory debates, corporate short-termism is often treated as a problem to be solved. Executives who focus too heavily on quarterly earnings, critics argue, sacrifice long-term value by cutting investment, skimping on innovation, and prioritizing optics over …

The capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces in the early morning hours of January 3, 2026 produced dramatic headlines, but a key question is whether his removal significantly affects the dynamics that have underpinned Venezuela’s long‑running crises. The reality …

For over a decade, the narrative of corporate governance was focused on the concentration of power. The “Big Three”asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street – along with the two dominant proxy advisers, ISS and Glass Lewis, were seen …

In recent decades, the business world has undergone a significant paradigm shift. What began as largely voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives has evolved into a comprehensive framework of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. As demand for these metrics …

For decades, U.S. securities regulation has treated foreign firms listed on U.S. exchanges differently from domestic issuers. Through the “foreign private issuer” (FPI) framework, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has offered foreign companies substantial accommodations such as exemptions from …

In a new article,  I examine how the role of derivatives in the crypto industry compares in terms of sophistication and leverage with their role in traditional finance.  Engaging in the first qualitative and empirical analysis of the issue, …

In 2023, a former employee and shareholder of a struggling startup called Teespring sued not just the company and its managers, but also one of its investors: Hydrazine Capital, a venture fund affiliated with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The plaintiff …

In advanced economies, the regulation of corporate governance during initial public offerings (IPOs) is used increasingly as a capital markets policy instrument. As  public listings declined, private-equity financing grew, and regulatory competition intensified, lawmakers reconsidered the role of mandatory …

In the world of corporate governance, large institutional investors wield power. But for many, that power comes from using their “voice” to call for changes within the firm because voting with their feet by selling their stake is not realistic. …

Firms need data to ensure core business functions. Yet, as we discuss in a new paper, many  do not pay enough attention to data sources, tending instead to focus on how data are used.  Most regulations address downstream uses …

As Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI advances to trial in April 2026, the case offers more than courtroom drama – it provides a critical test of whether hybrid corporate organizational structures can sustain public-interest commitments in the face of extraordinary …

For decades, the SEC stood as the principal barrier to mandatory arbitration for shareholder claims. In September 2025, that barrier fell. The agency’s reversal on shareholder arbitration represents a seismic policy shift, leaving Delaware law as the sole impediment …

The enactment of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act established the nation’s first federal prudential framework for “payment stablecoins,” mandating 1:1 reserve backing and explicitly prohibiting issuers from paying interest.[1] This legislative bargain was …

When activist investors acquire large stakes in a company and seek influence, they traditionally push for seats on the board of directors. In recent years, however, many activists have instead appointed a non-voting observer who can attend board meetings, receive …

In 1814, as the War of 1812 raged, New York adopted an Act to Encourage Privateering Associations (the “Act”), which was the second general incorporation statute in U.S. history. This unusual statute provides a case study that advances three arguments: …

America’s capital markets are the envy of the world but face an existential threat from the meteoric rise of index funds. The problem is a growing erosion of corporate accountability. Last month, President Trump took a first pass at this …

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act is now law. Some provisions are already in effect, but others are still being finalized, so boards are being asked to take digital governance seriously while the legal floor under their feet is still …

Environmental sustainability has become a cornerstone of modern corporate responsibility. Yet, a troubling trend lies beneath the glossy reports and bold claims: greenwashing, a way for companies to build a fake eco-friendly image.

Greenwashing is more than just misleading marketing. …

The shareholder proposal mechanism under SEC Rule 14a‑8 occupies a distinctive position in U.S. corporate governance. Created in 1942 as part of the federal proxy system, it enables shareholders to express views on corporate policy while leaving decision-making authority with …

Law and finance scholars have long found corporate law largely irrelevant for startups and venture capital (VC)because founders and investors often “contract around” mandatory rules. Yet this finding conflicts with persistent empirical patterns. Most VC-backed startups in the United …

Corporations have long played a central role in the development of science, producing foundational advances that have reshaped entire fields. Yet these contributions cannot be taken for granted. Over the past several decades, many corporations have retreated from scientific research. …

Elon Musk finally has his 2018 Tesla pay package back. The Delaware Supreme Court has spoken. The saga that consumed years of litigation, untold judicial energy, and more Twitter commentary than any fiduciary duty case deserves is, at least formally, …

Over the past two decades in Delaware, two schools of thought coexisted regarding non-majority control. One school took a formal approach that (i) focused on control over the board of directors, (ii) discounted sources of influence other than stock ownership, …

Hedge fund investors play an increasingly influential role in shaping corporate behavior, yet their broader economic and social effects remain the subject of debate. In a new paper, we examine how hedge fund activism operates in family-controlled firms, a common …

Under In re Caremark Int’l Inc. Derivative Litig., directors can be liable for failing to adequately oversee corporate compliance. While Caremark has famously been described as “the most difficult theory in corporation law upon which a plaintiff might hope …

Regulators, investors, and academics generally agree on the main goal of strong SEC oversight: to improve financial reporting, which helps markets allocate capital and promotes market efficiency. But this goal prompts a question that matters for corporate governance and long-run …

A rapidly expanding scope of challenges is prompting corporate boards to re-evaluate the adequacy of the information with which their staffs provide them. Traditional sources such as financial reports, regulatory and litigation briefings, and strategic commentaries are not enough to …

Debates on whether to simplify financial regulations are often framed as if complexity were a technical inconvenience –an unfortunate by-product of legislative over-exuberance that could be corrected by pruning rulebooks and consolidating texts. Yet the reality is not so simple. …

Elon Musk can cash the largest paycheck in history, the Supreme Court of Delaware has ruled in a narrow and sensible opinion grounded in longstanding principles of equity and contract law.

To catch up: Tesla and Musk entered into an …

In November 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued Staff Legal Bulletin 14L (“SLB 14L”), making it easier for shareholders to place environmental and social proposals on corporate ballots. The move was hailed by advocates for the environment as a …

Climate-related reporting continues to be a controversial topic. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn its defense of enhanced climate-related disclosures, the European Commission is debating how to scale back mandatory sustainability reporting requirements under its Omnibus revisions, …

On November 20, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda called for the opening of 401(k) retirement savings to private markets.  He observed that diversification has grown increasingly difficult to achieve through public securities alone, and that private investments (in structures such as …

401(k) accounts are where most Americans  put their financial assets.1 President Trump appears determined to prod them to invest those accounts in “alternative investments,” most prominently, private equity. To that end, in Executive Order 14330, the president ordered the Department …

The traditional mechanisms for ensuring corporate accountability – civil, regulatory, and federal criminal – are failing. At the same time, industries that generate great economic value are inflicting a great deal of harm.  This moment calls for effective reforms that …

The concept of commercial reasonableness is central to, or at least in the shadow of, most commercial, financial, and other business law disputes. Often, a court’s decision turns in whole or in part on whether parties acted in a commercially …

The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (“GENIUS Act”) establishes the first comprehensive federal framework for “payment stablecoins” in the United States. The bill’s most discussed, and debated, provision is Section 4(a)(11), which provides:

No …

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just assisting the legal profession but transforming it – including by shaping how disputes are resolved. In arbitration, algorithms are already used to select arbitrators, analyze documents, and draft procedural orders. The essential question …

Any state that aspires to be a serious contender in the competition for corporate charters must have a specialized corporate law court. Delaware leads this competition in part because of its Court of Chancery, which has produced an exceptional body …

American corporations have undergone a gradual but significant transformation. Founding chief executive officers (“founder-CEOs”) and activist hedge funds increasingly dominate their companies despite owning well short of a majority of shares. Founder-CEOs wield control through their personal brands or dual-class …

In October 2025, Bitcoin experienced its largest single-day crash since the COVID-19 pandemic, a 20% decline that economist Paul Krugman attributed not to economic fundamentals but to threats against Donald Trump’s political standing. ¹ Krugman’s diagnosis was stark: Bitcoin had …

In the market for corporate control, regulation has long been viewed as a tax on activity, a hurdle to overcome, or a cost to be priced in. The conventional wisdom is straightforward: More regulation equals less activity. However, in a …

Shareholders have evolved from passive investors into active participants, often driving transformative agendas through activism. Proxy contests, in which investors seek to influence or seize board control, have proliferated, imposing substantial financial burdens on companies – estimated in the billions …

The rise of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) as an alternative pathway to public markets represents one of the most significant features of entrepreneurial ventures in the last few years. Between 2020 and 2021, SPACs accounted for over 40% of …

Over the last few decades, large asset managers have loomed over U.S. equity markets. Their prominence has fueled a lively debate about the effects of “asset manager capitalism” on a variety of issues, including corporate governance and stewardship, market competition, …

There have recently been three excellent working papers on the problems facing Delaware corporate law—one by Professor Charles Whitehead, one by Professors Marcel Kahan and Ed Rock, and one by practitioners Greg Varallo, Andrew Blumberg, and Ben Potts…

The Delaware Supreme Court is considering a constitutional challenge to SB21’s major amendments to Section 144 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. The challenge, in Thomas Rutledge v. Clearway Energy Group, et al, comes as Delaware is ostensibly facing the …

If you practice securities litigation, you know the drill: When a stock’s value drops significantly after disclosure of adverse information, calculating damages typically focuses on the price decline itself, adjusted for market movements. In a new paper, I suggest this …

Initial public offerings (IPOs) are one of the most important events in a firm’s lifecycle, often representing its first major interaction with public capital markets. To assess value, evaluate risks, and determine offering terms, investors, underwriters, auditors, and regulators all …

Delaware retains the dominant position in the jurisdictional competition for corporate charters, but its lead looks increasingly tenuous. During the period 2024 through the first half of 2025, only five public companies with a market capitalization greater than $250 million …

As more corporate insiders are compensated with their firm’s stock, insider trading becomes more common. However, determining when insiders use private information to guide their trades remains a challenge. Regulators and market participants try to infer whether insiders “know something …

Following the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis, regulators around the world sought to design a new framework that would result in “bail-ins” instead of “bailouts” of large financial institutions. One important tool in that framework was a debt-equity hybrid instrument: contingent …

Insiders such as executives, directors, and large shareholders often use company stock as collateral for personal loans. This practice is widespread but lightly regulated, and to many it has long seemed a harmless perk of wealth and a private decision …

In many economic settings, gatekeepers play a central role. For example, auditors verify public firms’ financial statements, lawyers sign off on transactions by providing legal opinions, and bank regulators assess whether banks are financially sound. Gatekeepers influence the behavior of …

Artificial intelligence (AI) poses a clear and present danger to our money and our markets.  With AI, bad actors and rogue nations can readily and cheaply engage in market manipulation, financial misinformation, and regulatory misconduct that threaten the stability, integrity, …

The rapid rise of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain is placing significant pressure on the established framework of corporate law. This pressure raises fundamental questions about whether these innovations require minor regulatory updates or warrant a re-examination …

Between 2020 and the first half of 2024, corporations in a variety of industries adopted the language of social and environmental progress. They pledged to diversify their workforces, hired DEI professionals, denounced racial injustice, and announced plans to reduce greenhouse …

The enactment of the GENIUS Act of 2025 established the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins,^[1] which are digital assets pegged to fiat currency and backed by reserves such as U.S. dollars or short-term Treasuries.^[2] Yet embedded …

Hedge funds and other activist shareholders are taking an increasingly active role in monitoring and influencing the decisions of public companies. While the specifics of activist campaigns vary,  it’s generally a simple process: An investor buys a large equity stake in …

For decades, European policymakers have aspired to create a single capital market capable of financing innovation on a scale comparable to that of the United States. Yet, as reiterated by the recent Letta and Draghi Reports, that ambition remains …

Corporate insiders’ opportunistic trading – particularly selling their firms’ stocks before bad news – erodes public trust, reduces market participation, and exacerbates the agency problem that occurs when the interests of insiders and the company conflict. Yet, regulators have been …

Policymakers and academics have extensively debated the extent and the nature of the revolving door phenomenon – the movement of workers between the government and the private sector. Proponents claim that the flow of former regulators to commercial firms fosters …

Banks and other corporations have been exploring green financing as a way to implement ESG business projects. Green loans and sustainability-linked loans (“SLLs”) are the major types of such financing. The former require the use of borrowed proceeds for green …

Democratic institutions depend on public confidence to function effectively. Citizens comply with tax laws when they trust the IRS, cooperate with police when they view law enforcement as legitimate, and engage constructively with regulators they perceive as fair and effective. …

A central challenge to the effectiveness of shareholder voting is the collective action problem, where dispersed individual shareholders lack sufficient incentives to use their voting rights effectively. The problem is prevalent among retail investors, whose small ownership stakes and minimal …

On October 15, the Delaware Supreme Court heard arguments in In re Tesla, Inc. Derivative Litigation, more commonly known as Richard J. Tornetta v. Elon Musk, et al. and Tesla, Inc., the stockholder derivative action rescinding Elon Musk’s …

Oceans of ink have been spilled analyzing the corporate world’s criticism of Delaware case outcomes in recent years and the Delaware legislative response in February 2025. In the wake of all that ink came discussions of whether corporate CEOs, boards, …

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision, along with the SpeechNow.org v. FEC court decision, reshaped the landscape of political contributions. By striking down limits on independent expenditures, these rulings opened the door to a new, opaque channel …

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are now central to how nations stabilize fiscal balances, diversify assets, and project financial influence. Norway’s oil fund, Singapore’s Temasek, and the Gulf states’ investment vehicles all serve as stabilizers and strategic tools in global markets. …

Over the past decade, the meaning of shareholder democracy has shifted dramatically. Investors are no longer a uniform bloc, focused solely on financial returns, but increasingly diverse. Some press companies to pursue environmental and social goals, while others adhere to …

On September 2, 2025, U.S. Representative Zachary Nunn sent a letter to the chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) highlighting concerns over ownership transparency of certain bitcoin mining firms and suppliers connected to China. …

The backlash against environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) investing has been swift and fierce. More than 20 U.S. states have passed laws or taken administrative action targeting ESG considerations in asset management. Flows into ESG funds have slowed, and for …

Companies around the world are under pressure to diversify their executive leadership, while facing skepticism about their efforts. In a new study, we examine women’s entry into and exit from the highest levels of corporate leadership.

Breaking in Sooner

Research …

The convergence of emerging financial technologies and traditional diplomatic relations has created novel challenges for legal frameworks governing digital asset regulation and conflicts of interest in government. Recent developments involving the Trump administration, United Arab Emirates (UAE) investment entities, and …

Going public represents a milestone in corporate evolution, opening doors to capital markets and enabling expansion. Yet what if this achievement comes with hidden costs for the people who work at these companies? Our recent analysis of millions of Glassdoor …

A corporate governance revolution is underway. The conventional depiction of the U.S. capital markets has focused on the presence of large institutional shareholders and their substantial influence over the economy. But in the past two years, in response to political …

The tech sector has a great talent for using words whose superficial meaning is reinforced through intense though misleading marketing but whose actual meaning turns out to be quite different. Consider the name “stablecoin,” a simple term given to a …

Disclosure requirements can serve legitimate public purposes, but a blanket mandate risks negative economic ramifications. In a new paper, I examine how excessive mandatory disclosure could backfire, what makes an appropriate rule, and the l challenges of  evaluating policies on …

There is a robust debate among policymakers on whether to impose restrictions on the incentive pay of bankers. Proponents of such restrictions point to the great financial crisis and argue that enormous compensation packages give top executives and traders at …

For over a century, Delaware’s dominance in corporate law has been credited to an expert judiciary, deep case law, a specialized bar, a responsive legislature, and relative insulation from interest-group politics. Recent legislative and jurisprudential events, however, have caused observers …

Global capital markets are undergoing profound transformation. Over the past decade, there has been a marked decline in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in most advanced economies, including those with highly developed capital markets such as the United Kingdom and the …

The gap between CEO and worker pay in the U.S. has become a chasm. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio skyrocketed from 21-to-1 in 1965 to a staggering 344-to-1 in 2022.^[1] This widening disparity has …

On September 15, 2025, Elon Musk filed a disclosure with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating that he had acquired approximately 2.57 million shares of Tesla Inc. in open-market transactions on September 12, at a cost of nearly …

“Too big to fail” became a household phrase during the 2007–08 Global Financial Crisis. When giant financial institutions teetered, the government reached for ad hoc bailouts, fearing contagion and a broader economic collapse. Congress responded with the Dodd-Frank Act, which …

The debate over corporate purpose – whether companies should serve shareholders exclusively or balance the interests of a broader set of stakeholders – has become one of the defining issues in corporate governance. With climate change and sustainability shaping regulatory …

Elon Musk is once again testing the boundaries of the law on fiduciary duties. In September 2025, Tesla proposed to give him a new compensation package valued at more than $1 trillion, the largest in corporate history. Shareholders are scheduled …