Sky Blog
A well-functioning independent board of directors is a pillar of effective corporate governance. However, establishing and maintaining a truly functioning board remains a challenge for many companies. In response to apparent breakdowns in corporate oversight, policymakers have taken steps to …
Hedge fund activism is to corporate law’s early 21st century what the hostile takeover was to its late 20th century. Like the hostile takeover, activism threatens incumbent managers and disrupts their business plans by successfully appealing to the shareholders’ interest …
An emerging best practice of granting general counsel greater organizational prominence can create risks and benefits for corporate governance The general counsel’s ability to serve as a business partner of management helps establish the credibility essential to the successful performance …
Much recent work in finance and economics aims to understand the role that chief executive officers and other top managers play in the firms they run. Traditional theories about firm decisions on matters such as capital structure or investments don’t …
Diversity in corporate boards is a hot topic. We contribute to the debate on the role of diversity by empirically documenting that greater national cultural diversity in corporate boards leads to lower performance at UK firms accounting for more than …
Individual investors are active participants in the shareholder resolution process. According to Proxy Monitor, shareholder proposals sponsored by individual investors represent approximately one-quarter of the total number of shareholder resolutions voted on each year.[1] During the 10-year period 2006-2015, individual …
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act provided shareholders of U.S. public corporations the right to vote on chief executive officers’ compensation, at least every three years. The so–called say on pay vote is advisory but was designed to curb overly generous executive …
In March 2016, the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) proposed new rules regarding disclosure of third-party compensation of directors. This third-party compensation, which may not be publicly disclosed, arises when a party other than the issuer, such as an activist …
Make no mistake, the invasion of the Millennials is upon us. From actor and comedian Aziz Ansari to tech tycoon and philanthropist Mark Zuckerberg, Millennials have made an indelible mark on American society and the world.
According to Pew Research
On May 6, 2016, in Singh v. Attenborough, No. 645, the Delaware Supreme Court strengthened the defenses available to directors by clarifying a roadmap for effectively dismissing post-closing claims for breach of fiduciary duty. A fully informed, uncoerced vote …
We recently published a paper on CEO compensation and value sharing between executives and shareholders. The paper is available here.
CEO compensation is a controversial subject that evokes considerable debate on whether public company CEOs are paid correctly relative …
Corporate directors inevitably must make real-time decisions on complex and nuanced matters that impact not only the company, but also the company’s various stakeholders—e.g., shareholders, creditors, and employees. The pressure cooker that often is the corporate boardroom is not for …
The corporate board is commonly seen as a crucial governance device that operates to both monitor corporate management and provide strategic advice. Recent corporate governance research has discovered a broad range of evidence of internal board monitoring and advisory activities; …
There has been a recent surge in scholarship on the issue of concentration of power in the CEO, and the subsequent consequences for shareholder wealth maximization and board primacy. There is a general consensus among scholars that, in general, more …
Options backdating? Who would be so arrogant to be still backdating their options? It has been exactly ten years since the Wall Street Journal’s exposé on “lucky CEOs.”[1] The intriguing question though is whether the executives could resist temptation …
The “meh” economy that accounts for some of the sourness in the American electorate is partly due to a design flaw in the US corporate governance system. One proffered diagnosis is that companies invest for the short term and are …
The world of corporate governance is undergoing two intense, inter-related debates. One is a debate as to whether profit-maximization in the short term is really different from profit-maximization in the long term, and if so whether American corporations are currently …
One of the most remarkable features of US corporate law–at least, from the perspective of a foreign scholar–is the power given to the board of directors. Under current US corporate law (especially, in Delaware), the authority of the board of …
Are gender-balanced boards more active than non-gender balanced boards? I address this question in “Gender and Board Activeness: The Role of a Critical Mass”, forthcoming in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Using detailed minutes of …
When it comes to corporate litigation, is more necessarily better? The legal system has developed a broad array of litigation options to address corporate wrongdoing. Under state law, shareholders can file a derivative suit or class action alleging that directors …