How Blockchain Could Improve the Global Supply Chain

By Chang-hsien Tsai and Ching-Fu Lin May 10, 2023 by renholding

Global supply chains (GSCs) have become increasingly complex and fragmented over the last few decades due to advances in transportation and production technology, economic globalization, and the emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs). Despite their benefits, GSCs present significant risks of …

Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility Legislation Around the World

By Li-Wen Lin November 20, 2020 by renholding

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is typically assumed to be a voluntary rather than mandatory initiative. Yet, over the past few decades, a growing number of countries have adopted laws that explicitly require corporations to undertake CSR.

To date, most scholarly …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Using ESG Tools to Help Combat Systemic Racism and Injustice

By Adam O. Emmerich, David M. Silk, Sabastian V. Niles, Elina Tetelbaum and Carmen X.W. Lu June 16, 2020 by renholding

Events of recent weeks and months have starkly illuminated the effects of systemic racism and injustice on Black Americans, including threats to physical safety, psychological trauma and economic disparity. CEOs worldwide and across industries have spoken out, expressing their horror …

How Effective Start-up Governance Attracts Investors

By Mircea Epure and Martí Guasch April 24, 2020 by renholding

In a recent paper, we argue that outside investors are cautious about financing start-ups because such companies often lack a track record and tend to be managed in a less-than professional manner, with founders sometimes putting their own interests …

Peer Effects in Proxy Voting Decisions

By Jiekun Huang March 12, 2020 by renholding

Proxy voting decisions are characterized by strong strategic complementary relationships in the sense that the utility to a shareholder from voting in a particular manner increases with the extent that other shareholders vote in the same manner. Such complementarities arise …

Economic Consequences of Corporate Governance Disclosure

By Ole-Kristian Hope and Haihao Lu August 19, 2019 by renholding

Related party transactions (RPTs) refer to a transfer of resources, services, or obligations between a reporting entity and a related party and usually offer insiders a way to expropriate wealth from other investors via self-dealing. Both the Financial Accounting Standards …

Interpreting Organizational Documents in the Private Ordering Era

By Megan W. Shaner July 3, 2019 by renholding

Private ordering has become a common way to restructure key aspects of public corporation governance. Stockholder activists and boards of directors alike are testing the bounds of the freedom to contract in the charter and bylaws, adopting provisions aimed at …

What Public Blockchain Protocol Governance Can Learn from Corporate Governance

By Carla L. Reyes May 7, 2019 by renholding

Despite the hype, blockchain technology remains in an early phase of development. Indeed, for many public blockchain protocols, the process of building consensus around the desired trajectory of the code base remains under-conceptualized and informal. Such uncertainty has led to …

Diversity’s Role in Boardroom Leadership

By Joseph Mandato and William Devine April 19, 2019 by renholding

What does boardroom culture yield when a board commits to a broad embrace of diversity—including diversity of gender, ideas, ethnicity, race, education, age, and skills? Do chances improve for decisions that help lead the company to maximize its potential and …

Opening the Black Box of Companies’ Capital Investment Process

By Gilles Hilary, Mark (Shuai) Ma and Wenjia Yan April 16, 2019 by renholding

In spite of intensive academic research on capital expenditure efficiency, how firms make investment decisions remains largely a black box. We analyze that process by dividing it into two stages: budgeting of capital expenditures (CapEx) and execution of the budget. …

ISS Discusses Role of Shareholder Proposals in Shaping U.S. Governance Practices

By Kosmas Papadopoulos February 15, 2019 by renholding

Over the past three decades, shareholder proposals have transformed the corporate landscape in the U.S. by spurring the adoption of governance best practices. Annual director elections, majority vote rules for director elections, shareholder approval for poison pills, and proxy access …

Antitakeover Provisions and Firm Value: New Evidence from the M&A Market

By Paul P. Momtaz February 5, 2019 by renholding

A vast literature studies the effects of antitakeover provisions (ATPs) on firm value. The academic consensus is that ATPs harm firm value because they partly insulate managers from the threat of takeover, and that view has become very influential. Prominent …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Mergers and Acquisitions — 2019

By Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz January 22, 2019 by renholding

As a whole, 2018 proved to be another strong year for M&A. Total deal volume reached almost $4.2 trillion globally, higher than the $3.7 trillion volume of 2017, but still less than the record of over $5 trillion set in …

Against Mandatory Sunset for Dual Class Firms

By Zohar Goshen January 2, 2019 by renholding

The debate over dual class firms has morphed from an objection to their very legitimacy to a demand to subject them to a mandatory sunset provision. My colleague and friend, Professor John Coffee, believes that dual class firms are undesirable …

Wachtell Lipton Offers Thoughts for Boards of Directors in 2019

By Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, Karessa L. Cain, Amanda S. Blackett and Kathleen C. Iannone December 20, 2018 by renholding

In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that the activism-driven corporate world is relatively fragile and is proving to be unsustainable, particularly when viewed in the broader context of rapidly changing political and social norms and increasing divisiveness across …

What Can We Learn from Stock Prices?

By Joshua Mitts December 18, 2018 by renholding

Prices convey information. Hayek (1945) put it this way: Prices “coordinate the separate actions of different people in the same way as subjective values help the individual to coordinate the parts of his plan.” Stock prices, in particular, matter a …

Wachtell Lipton Puts a Spotlight on Boards

By Martin Lipton December 3, 2018 by renholding

The ever-evolving challenges facing corporate boards prompt an updated snapshot of what is expected from the board of directors of a major public company—not just the legal rules, but also the aspirational “best practices” that have come to have equivalent …

Cleary Gottlieb Discusses Updates to Proxy Adviser Guidelines

By Michael Albano, Julia M. Rozenblit and Emily Barry November 12, 2018 by renholding

As 2018 draws to a close, both Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis are in the process of updating their 2019 proxy voting guidelines.

In mid-October, ISS launched its 2019 benchmark voting policy consultation period, pursuant to which …

How Boards Can Get Ready for Climate Change

By Sophie L'Helias and Nina Hodzic November 1, 2018 by renholding

We are constantly reminded of the urgency to act as we witness the impact of climate-related events on peoples’ lives and their communities around the world.

The signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016 was a watershed moment as …

SEC Commissioner Airs Her Beef With Stakeholders

By Hester M. Peirce September 26, 2018 by renholding

Last time I flew to California, the skies were so clear that I was able to keep an eye on the changing landscape below all the way across the country. The vastness and great variety was striking. Having grown up

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The CLS Blue Sky Blog

Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets

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