Kathleen C. Iannone

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Stakeholder Governance and the Fiduciary Duties of Directors

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There has recently been much debate and some confusion about a bedrock principle of corporate law – namely, the essence of the board’s fiduciary duty, and particularly the extent to which the board can or should or must consider the interests of other stakeholders besides shareholders.

For several decades, there has been a prevailing assumption among many CEOs, directors, scholars, investors, asset managers and others that the sole purpose of corporations is to maximize value for shareholders and, accordingly, that corporate decision-makers should be very closely tethered to the views and preferences of shareholders.  This has created an opportunity for … Read more

Wachtell Lipton Offers Thoughts for Boards of Directors in 2018

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As 2017 draws to a conclusion and we reflect on the evolution of corporate governance since the turn of the millennium, a recurring question percolating in boardrooms and among shareholders and other stakeholders, academics and politicians is:  what’s next on the horizon for corporate governance?  In many respects, we seem to have reached a point of relative stasis.  The governance and takeover defense profiles of U.S. public companies have been transformed by the widespread adoption of virtually all of the “best practices” advocated to enhance the rights of shareholders and weaken takeover defenses.

While the future issues of corporate … Read more