Sky Blog
Once a legal unknown, Michael Cohen made it last week to the front pages of both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Charges swirl around him as the personal fixer for President Trump and the alleged …
The capstone of regulatory reform in the wake of the financial crisis can be characterized as an effort to change the financial industry by getting bankers to behave more ethically. Regulators have emphasized the importance of “culture” set by a …
A significant emerging governance issue is how best to monitor – and influence – the management style of senior executives who by nature are insensitive to the risks of their initiatives. As recent controversies across multiple industry sectors confirm, such …
When high-profile cases of fraud make the news, we often focus our attention on the CEO or other C-suite executives, asking what signs were missed and how we might better anticipate who might commit fraud. Academics have researched the characteristics …
The Great Recession of 2008 had a devastating effect on the world economy. Millions of jobs were lost, trillions in financial assets evaporated, and millions of people lost their homes. Great companies such as Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and many …
Lawyers for startups typically serve as counsel to the new organization, with all of the complications that accompany representing an entity. But consider those lawyers as they perform legal work for the enterprise before any organization exists. Who are their …
“Culture, more than rule books, determines how an organization behaves.” – Warren Buffet[1]
In recent years, there have been ongoing occurrences of serious professional misbehavior, ethical lapses and compliance failures at financial institutions. It was the crisis that exposed …
There has been tension between the legal academy and the practising profession ever since law was first taught in university law schools in the 19th century. The sense of unease arose because of uncertainty as to whether the primary …
In recent decades, it seems the only reason one flavor of corporate or financial misbehavior falls out of the public discourse is because a newer one has taken its place. Following the widespread corporate frauds of the 1990s, the unscrupulous …
The role of the corporate general counsel (GC) has evolved over the past several decades. Traditionally, the GC served as an internal monitor via his/her gatekeeping functions to ensure that firms and their personnel acted legally and responsibly in business …
General Motors’ tardy response to ignition switch problems; Standard Chartered Bank’s wire-stripping of Iranian funds; and the News of the World’s misleading ‘lone wolf’ defence of hacking are all illustrations of the increasingly controversial role that the management of legal …
Last year’s best-seller by Michael Lewis, Flash Boys,[1] ignited a firestorm of debate on the subject of high-frequency trading, or HFT. Lewis’s central claim is that the stock markets are “rigged,” with HFT shops skimming sizable amounts off of …
This post comes from Michael W. Peregrine, a partner in McDermott Will & Emery. Mr. Peregrine advises corporations, officers and directors on matters relating to corporate governance, fiduciary duties and officer/director liability issues. His views do not necessarily reflect the …