Each year, roughly 35 million television viewers tune in to watch live telecasts of the Oscars, Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, and Golden Globes. That celebratory ritual of broadcast television, which honors the year’s best stage, screen, and recording performances, has grown …

In a recent case involving Meta (née Facebook), the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an important opinion that speaks to the fundamental nature of corporate governance. Nearly everyone knows that corporate directors owe fiduciary duties to “the corporation and its …

Since the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, the corporate finance markets have been dramatically transformed. Most notable has been the rise of non-traditional providers of debt finance such as private credit funds, which now aggressively compete with traditional finance providers …

Independent directors were originally conceived as guardians of shareholder interests who could safeguard a corporate board’s ability to check management’s power. They have since become a marquee feature of modern corporate governance. What, though, makes a director independent? Scholars, regulators, …

You can scribble an agreement on a napkin or hire lawyers to negotiate a contract that is hundreds of pages long. Either way, most of your contractual obligations won’t be in your agreement. They will be in the background rules …

In the complex world of corporate governance, a novel mechanism has reemerged: board observers. Operating without the conventional voting rights of board members, these individuals have become pivotal in bridging the gap between ambitious startups and their venture capital (VC) …

In a recent Balkinization post, my colleague and friend Professor David Pozen critiques the power held by the office of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and argues for a more “democratic model of internal governance.”  Alongside his …

The Department of Justice recently announced a new policy on voluntary self-disclosure for individuals (the Pilot Program) that is likely to create significant challenges for a board of director’s audit and compliance committees, as well as tension among employees — …

Following a lengthy and contentious standard setting process, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the U.S. regulator overseeing the auditors of publicly traded companies, implemented Rule 3211 in 2017. This rule requires audit firms to disclose the name of …

Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of its proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission gradually increased the proportion of instructed votes on a shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully-instructed …

Most businesses follow an explicit or implicit code of conduct that guides their operations, their relations with the public, and their treatment of customers, employees, and other stakeholders. These rules often go beyond what is legally required, and businesses often …

Globalization, whatever its problems, has created international flows of goods and other items that in value far exceed the GDP of the largest states (or combinations of them like the EU). and so it may lay claim to its own …

For many business economists and legal academics, the purpose of any business organization is simply stated: to maximize profits. And it is true that many practical advantages may follow from this statement of purpose. Focusing only on profit-making allows leaders …