Sky Blog
In a major development for businesses subject to state data privacy laws, eight state privacy regulators have joined forces to form the “Consortium of Privacy Regulators,” a bipartisan coalition aimed at coordinating enforcement and protecting consumer privacy through collaboration. The …
“Why shouldn’t we be chilled by this?” a federal judge remarked about President Trump’s imposing extraordinary penalties upon the Perkins Coie law firm. The firm represented Trump rival Hillary Clinton in 2016 and is now suing to challenge the president’s …
Good morning and welcome to the annual conference on federal and state securities cooperation, organized jointly by the North American Securities Administrators Association (“NASAA”) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”).[1] Inside the SEC, this gathering …
This year – 2025 – marks the start of a new presidential administration, which holds tremendous potential. It has been a privilege to serve these past couple of months as the Acting Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.[1]
In a new article, we challenge one of corporate law’s most persistent narratives: the concept of “shareholder democracy.” With people on opposing sides of recent high-profile battles at companies like Disney, Tesla, and Exxon invoking “shareholder democracy” to support their …
The proposed amendments to Delaware corporate law have sparked intense debate among corporate legal scholars and practitioners. A flurry of commentary has focused thus far on the proposed changes to Section 144, which governs transactions with controlling shareholders. This post, …
Effective and well-designed laws governing investment and financial markets are the single most important foundation for financial markets to allocate capital efficiently while providing optimal reassurance to investors and lenders. Strong empirical evidence shows the United States has a lower …
Over the past few years, the legal landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) has undergone significant changes. The landmark SFFA v. Harvard decision prohibiting the use of race‑based considerations in college admissions has contributed to the emergence of a …
In a new paper, we investigate whether and how ethnic diversity on boards of directors helps shape a firm’s supply chain. Our empirical findings from a sample of U.S. S&P 1500 firms from 2008 to 2020 show a positive effect …
Nonprofits organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) play an ever-growing role in politics and public policy advocacy. This is especially the case following the publication of the Federal Election Commission’s Advisory Opinion 2024-01 (available here), …
Citing the threats posed by foreign adversaries and criminal organizations, and seeking enhanced accountability for companies that provide software and cloud services to the federal government, the Biden administration released a new, sweeping Executive Order (“E.O.”) on cybersecurity, signing the …
Over the past few decades, corporate law scholarship has largely relied on insights from the nexus-of-contracts theory of the firm, agency-theoretic reasoning in corporate finance, and the economic analysis of law more generally. These insights have led to substantial theoretical …
On January 8, 2025, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published its Final Rule to implement President Biden’s Executive Order 14117, “Preventing Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern” (the “Final Rule”). …
The District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently ruled that a company breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) for permitting BlackRock’s inclusion as an investment manager of its employees’ retirement …
While it is widely recognized that companies regularly lobby Congress, we show that most large public companies also lobby executive agencies. Given that executive agencies are not beholden to companies for campaign contributions, it is not clear whether agencies would …
Equity has become a dominant component of CEO compensation in the past three decades due to its ability to align the interests of managers and shareholders. Each year, a firm can award its CEO either a certain number (share-based) or …
In a recent paper, I explore hidden fallacies in one of the most resilient and enduring of modern corporate law paradigms, namely agency theory (aka the “contractual” or “nexus of contracts” model).
My paper contends that the classical agency theory …
One distinctive feature of the U.S. economy over recent decades has been the rise of the entrepreneur-dominated public company. This development has derived largely from the growth of private funding available through venture capital, so that initial public offerings have …