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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Law
Shotgun Weddings: Director And Officer Fiduciary Duties In Government-Controlled And Partially-Nationalized Corporations, David M. Barnes
Shotgun Weddings: Director And Officer Fiduciary Duties In Government-Controlled And Partially-Nationalized Corporations, David M. Barnes
Vanderbilt Law Review
Corporate law considers the affairs of a corporation to be private activity. The prevailing concept of the firm is a nexus of private contract rights among participants in an economic enterprise. But for many U.S. auto and financial services corporations, the events of the fall of 2008 and the winter of 2009 turned this presumption on its head. The U.S. government's $700 billion bailout injected an alien actor-the United States Treasury-into this once-private enterprise. The bailout enabled the Treasury to take a direct equity stake in many of the nation's struggling auto and financial services corporations. In the fall of …
Turning A Short-Term Fling Into A Long-Term Commitment: Board Duties In A New Era, Nadelle Grossman
Turning A Short-Term Fling Into A Long-Term Commitment: Board Duties In A New Era, Nadelle Grossman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Corporate boards face significant pressure to make decisions that maximize profits in the short run. That pressure comes in part from executives who are financially rewarded for short-term profits despite the long-term risks associated with those profit-making activities. The current financial crisis, where executives at AIG and numerous other institutions ignored the long-term risks associated with their mortgage backed securities investments, arose largely because those executives were compensated for the short-term profits generated by those investments despite their longer-term risks. Pressure on boards for short-term profits also comes from activist investors who seek to make quick money off of trading …
An Antidote For Poison Puts: A Eulogy For A Management Entrenchment Device, David Hudson
An Antidote For Poison Puts: A Eulogy For A Management Entrenchment Device, David Hudson
David Hudson
Poison puts are a type of event risk covenant commonly found in financing agreements. Lenders, both as bondholders and banks, utilize this provision as one layer of protection. However, poison puts can also be utilized to entrench a corporation’s management. The provision grew in popularity with the growth of the leveraged buyout boom of the 1980’s, but was frequently ignored during the subsequent economic growth period and merger activity that accompanied it. With the recent collapse in credit markets, companies and shareholders have challenged the provision’s interpretation and enforceability. These challenges have come in tandem with lenders taking more aggressive …
Protecting Shareholder Access To Director Elections: A Response To Ca, Inc. V. Afscme Urging The Adoption Of A Blasius Standard Of Review For The Exercise Of A Fiduciary-Out Clause, Christopher Fawal
Duke Law Journal
The shareholder's role in corporate management is evolving. In CA, Inc. v. AFSCME, the Delaware Supreme Court likely expanded that role in a ruling that signals the potential for greater shareholder access to the corporate boardroom and enhanced director accountability. The court determined that a shareholder proposal to mandate reimbursement of certain board of director candidates was a proper subject for shareholder bylaws. But the court also held that the particular bylaw in question did not preserve the board's ability to exercise its fiduciary duties and, therefore, violated Delaware law. Future bylaws governing director nominations and elections are likely to …
Ignoring The Writing On The Wall: The Role Of Enterprise Risk Management In The Economic Crisis, Michelle M. Harner
Ignoring The Writing On The Wall: The Role Of Enterprise Risk Management In The Economic Crisis, Michelle M. Harner
Michelle M. Harner
Enterprise risk management (ERM) targets overall corporate strategy and, when implemented correctly, can manage a corporation’s risk appetite and exposure. When ignored or underutilized, it can contribute to a corporation’s demise. In fact, many commentators point to ERM failures as contributing to the severity of the 2008 economic crisis. This essay examines the different approaches to ERM adopted by financial institutions affected by the 2008 economic crisis and how ERM contributed to the survival or failure of those firms. It then considers ERM in the broader context of corporate governance generally. This discussion reflects on ERM techniques for corporate boards …
The Search For An Unbiased Fiduciary In Corporate Reorganizations, Michelle M. Harner
The Search For An Unbiased Fiduciary In Corporate Reorganizations, Michelle M. Harner
Michelle M. Harner
When a company experiences financial distress, a control contest often follows. Management fights to remain in control of the company, and shareholders, creditors and others try to influence management’s exercise of that control—or wrest it away. This is not a new phenomenon. The degree of influence now exerted by corporate stakeholders in the distressed context, however, is strikingly different than in the past. Recent headlines highlight that stakeholder control issues are at the forefront of financially-distressed situations large and small. The U.S. government, as creditor, dictated the terms of Chrysler’s and General Motors’ bankruptcies. It also demanded and received preferred …
Ignoring The Writing On The Wall: The Role Of Enterprise Risk Management In The Economic Crisis, Michelle M. Harner
Ignoring The Writing On The Wall: The Role Of Enterprise Risk Management In The Economic Crisis, Michelle M. Harner
Faculty Scholarship
Enterprise risk management (ERM) targets overall corporate strategy and, when implemented correctly, can manage a corporation’s risk appetite and exposure. When ignored or underutilized, it can contribute to a corporation’s demise. In fact, many commentators point to ERM failures as contributing to the severity of the 2008 economic crisis. This essay examines the different approaches to ERM adopted by financial institutions affected by the 2008 economic crisis and how ERM contributed to the survival or failure of those firms. It then considers ERM in the broader context of corporate governance generally. This discussion reflects on ERM techniques for corporate boards …
Debtor Counsel's Fiduciary Duty: Is There A Duty To Rat In Chapter 11?, Nancy B. Rapoport, C. R. Bowles
Debtor Counsel's Fiduciary Duty: Is There A Duty To Rat In Chapter 11?, Nancy B. Rapoport, C. R. Bowles
Scholarly Works
This article discusses what duties counsel to the debtor-in-possession owe (and to whom they owe these duties) when the debtor-in-possession wants to do something illegal or just plain dumb.
Regulating Charities In The Twenty-First Century: An Institutional Choice Analysis, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Brendan M. Wilson
Regulating Charities In The Twenty-First Century: An Institutional Choice Analysis, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Brendan M. Wilson
Journal Articles
For more than fifty years scholars, practitioners, and government officials have debated whether the federal government, the state governments, or the charitable sector itself can best ensure that charity leaders fulfill their fiduciary duties. The dramatic growth of this sector, recent highly publicized governance scandals, and a push in Congress and the IRS for more federal involvement in this area have now brought this issue to a head. This article lays a foundation for resolving the dispute by developing an institutional choice framework for considering and comparing the various available options. Applying that framework, the article concludes that the best …
How Many Fiduciary Duties Are There In Corporate Law?, Julian Velasco
How Many Fiduciary Duties Are There In Corporate Law?, Julian Velasco
Journal Articles
Historically, there were two main fiduciary duties in corporate law, care and loyalty, and only the duty of loyalty was likely to lead to liability. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Delaware Supreme Court breathed life into the duty of care, created a number of intermediate standards of review, elevated the duty of good faith to equal standing with care and loyalty, and announced a unified test for review of breaches of fiduciary duty. The law, which once seemed so straightforward, suddenly became elaborate and complex. In 2006, in the case of Stone v. Ritter, the Delaware Supreme Court rejected …