Sky Blog
The growing body of governance literature offers no shortage of views on what boards ought to concern themselves with beyond the routine fare of overseeing management and discussing strategy and finances. Depending on the perspective of the author, topics range …
For more than a decade, the European Union has styled itself as the custodian of digital civilization. If Silicon Valley built the engines, and Shenzhen perfected the replication, Brussels has written the rulebook. After the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Proxy advisers play a pivotal role in corporate governance by providing institutional investors with recommendations on how to vote at shareholder meetings. These firms influence key corporate decisions, including the election of directors, executive compensation, and governance policies, thereby exerting …
In an era of heightened political uncertainty – from gridlock in Washington to changes within the European Union – political risk has become a top concern for many boards of directors. Firms often cultivate political connections to mitigate these risks …
Following a string of high-profile data breaches and other cybersecurity failures, investors and regulators increasingly expect corporate directors to monitor cyber risk. But what does board oversight of cybersecurity look like in practice, and is it effective? In a recent …
Board structure sits at the heart of corporate governance, but its optimal form remains a subject of debate. A longstanding view – championed by Jensen (1993) and Yermack (1996) – advocates for smaller boards, arguing they are more efficient and …
The corporate law discourse on climate change has largely focused on the “internal dimension” of directors’ duties – whether boards must consider climate-related risks and opportunities that affect firm-specific financial performance. While this question has gained significant traction, a more …
Controlled companies – public firms where an individual, group, or another company holds majority voting power – make up a significant and growing share of the U.S. public market, accounting for over $2.2 trillion in 2019 alone. Despite their scale, …
Founders and early investors increasingly maintain control of companies while holding small economic stakes in them – raising fundamental questions about how Delaware courts can enforce accountability in corporate governance. In a new working paper, I challenge the courts’ …
Say-on-pay, an annual, non-binding shareholder vote on CEO compensation, is one of the primary ways of giving shareholders a voice in corporate governance. It is in essence a vote of confidence on the board of directors’ compensation decisions and the …
The decision to appoint a new CEO is among the most critical and strategic choices a corporation can face, as it can significantly influence the organization’s future. A key consideration is whether to promote an internal candidate or recruit one …
The 2024 amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) were born from an atypical period of acrimony and controversy among the corporate bar, stockholder advocates, and corporate law academics, including harsh public criticism of members of the Court of …
The relationship between directors’ fiduciary duties and shareholder wealth maximization under Delaware law has long been a prickly topic. Some commentators argue the relationship is merely a default capable of adjustment through private ordering.[1] Others, pointing to cases like …
As corporate directors and other private actors have taken on public or quasi-public functions like reigning in conflicted executives or approving healthcare claims, fiduciary duties have expanded to protect the vulnerable and bridge the gap between public and private law.…
Next week, Tesla investors will cast an unprecedented vote on what a court called the “largest chief-executive pay package in the history of public markets.” While the vote has been closely watched, little attention has been paid to the elephant …
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, …
For decades, advocates of “shareholder primacy” as the North Star of corporate governance have steered our leading corporations and our Nation’s economic engine perilously off-course. Since the 1970s, when the work of Milton Friedman, Michael Jensen, and Frank …
Corporate disclosures concerning artificial intelligence have increased dramatically in the past year, with Bloomberg reporting that nearly half of S&P 500 companies referenced AI in their most recent annual reports. And some investors are clamoring for even more, using shareholder …
In In re Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery (in an opinion by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster) clarified that, when exercising stockholder rights to alter a corporation’s status quo, controllers owe …