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Full-Text Articles in Law
Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman
Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman
Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.
Effective corporate governance is critical to the productive operation of the global economy and preservation of our way of life. Excellent governance execution is also required to achieve economic growth and robust job creation in any country. In the United States, the premier director membership organization is the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Since 1978, NACD plays a major role in fostering excellence in corporate governance in the United States and beyond. The NACD has grown from a mere realization of the importance of corporate governance to become the only national membership organization created by and for corporate directors. …
Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman
Present At The Creation: Reflections On The Early Years Of The National Association Of Corporate Directors, Lawrence J. Trautman
Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.
Effective corporate governance is critical to the productive operation of the global economy and preservation of our way of life. Excellent governance execution is also required to achieve economic growth and robust job creation in any country. In the United States, the premier director membership organization is the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Now over 36 years old, NACD plays a major role in fostering excellence in corporate governance in the United States and beyond. Over the past thirty-six years NACD has grown from a mere realization of the importance of corporate governance to become the only national membership …
Rethinking Judicial Review Of Director Care, Lyman P.Q. Johnson
Rethinking Judicial Review Of Director Care, Lyman P.Q. Johnson
Lyman P. Q. Johnson
This article offers an extended critique of the Delaware Supreme Court's unprecedented use of an entire fairness test in a breach of due care setting, as first articulated in Cede & Co. v. Technicolor, Inc. 634 A.2d 345 (Del. 1993) and Cinerama, Inc. v. Technocolor, Inc., 663 A.2d 1156 (Del. 1995). The article then argues for a generalized reasonableness standard for director conduct and for judicially reviewing care claims, thereby providing Delaware law with something it has lacked historically ? a pervasive (yet still streamlined) duty of due care.
The Modest Business Judgment Rule, Lyman P.Q. Johnson
The Modest Business Judgment Rule, Lyman P.Q. Johnson
Lyman P. Q. Johnson
This article argues that Delaware mis-formulates and mis-uses the business judgment rule. Properly understood, the business judgment rule's function in corporate law is quite modest. It is a narrowly-drawn judicial policy of nonreview which, in duty of care cases, shields the merits of board decisions from judicial scrutiny. The article contends that the business judgment rule, therefore, should be de-emphasized as an analytical construct in the law of director fiduciary duties and should be sharply differentiated from the broader-gauged duty of due care. Doing so will pave the way for Delaware courts to rethink the importance of articulating a robust, …
Corporate Officers And The Business Judgment Rule, Lyman P.Q. Johnson
Corporate Officers And The Business Judgment Rule, Lyman P.Q. Johnson
Lyman P. Q. Johnson
This article argues that the business judgment rule - a cornerstone concept in corporate law - does not and should not extend to corporate officers in the same broad manner in which it is applied to directors. The argument proceeds along both descriptive and normative lines. After first reviewing judicial decisions, the article concludes that, notwithstanding frequent, broad assertions to the contrary, application of the rule to corporate officers is not firmly established in case law. The article next examines the policy case by assessing three conventional rationales for applying the rule to directors and concluding, on balance, that the …
Shareholder Primacy And The Business Judgment Rule: Arguments For Expanded Corporate Democracy, Robert Sprague, Aaron Lyttle
Shareholder Primacy And The Business Judgment Rule: Arguments For Expanded Corporate Democracy, Robert Sprague, Aaron Lyttle
Robert Sprague
There is a fundamental flaw in the law’s approach to corporate governance. While shareholder primacy is a well-established norm within U.S. corporate law, the business judgment rule essentially holds directors blameless when they fail to maximize shareholder wealth. During the past century, control of the corporation has passed from shareholders to managers. As a result, shareholders have little practical say in who runs the corporation, even though they cannot usually hold managers legally liable when those managers destroy shareholder wealth through incompetence. Despite a number of arguments asserting that shareholders do not deserve any additional management powers, this article concludes …
Enhancing The Efficiency Of Board Decision Making: Lessons Learned From The Financial Crisis Of 2008, Bernard S. Sharfman
Enhancing The Efficiency Of Board Decision Making: Lessons Learned From The Financial Crisis Of 2008, Bernard S. Sharfman
Bernard S Sharfman
As a result of the financial crisis of 2008, the employment compensation policies and decisions of Wall Street corporate boards have come under close scrutiny. More specifically, the willingness to approve company wide compensation plans that resulted in the paying out of billions of dollars in bonuses even in the face of deteriorating financial and economic conditions. If only these and other Wall Street firms had retained the bulk of these large annual bonuses over the last several years when the financial markets were noticeably in decline, perhaps the economic impact of the current financial crisis would have been less …