Digital Commons Network^™

Diversity In Mdl Leadership: A Field Guide, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) includes some of the most high-profile torts of our day—opioids, talc, RoundUp, to name a few—but the attorneys who spearhead these proceedings often look a lot like they did fifty years ago: predominately white and predominately male.

A debate has emerged over whether attorneys best positioned to fill MDL leadership roles are the grizzled repeat players who appear time and again—and who are largely white, older, and male—or newcomers with fresh ideas and energy who may not always look like their predecessors. And if diversity is important, what kind of diversity matters?

In this short essay, I …

Tournament Of Managers: Lessons From The Academic Leadership Market, Usha Rodrigues

Scholarly Works

Why do firms usually make, not buy, their chief executive officers (CEOs)? Public corporations hire their CEOs from within the firm 78% of the time. They do so although earlier studies have found no clear evidence that internal hires perform better than external ones. So why do firms prefer them? Few scholars have focused on this simple question.

The reason why firms favor internal candidates matters not only in its own right, but also for an overlooked reason: it informs the controversial question of executive compensation. Currently board-compensation committees look to peer benchmarks to set executive pay. But, taking cues …

On Balance: Leading By Leaving, Paula Schaefer

Scholarly Works

Even though women make up half of law school classes in the U.S., hold half of elite judicial clerkships, and accept almost half of the jobs in large U.S. law firms, only a small number of women make partner or serve in leadership roles in those firms. Much has been written about the things that stand in the way of gender equality in elite law firms. Yet misconceptions persist about why the time demands of “big law” have a disproportionate impact on women.

This Article points to evidence that is contrary to those misconceptions and argues that the women – …

The Last Male Bastion: In Search Of A Trojan Horse, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

Numerous legal scholars and commentators have written about the paucity of women in the boardroom at influence-wielding U.S. public companies. Fewer have written about the scarcity of female Chief Executive Officers, and fewer yet have written about the relatively low numbers of female executive officers, at U.S. public companies.

This brief essay (an edited version of my remarks offered at the University of Dayton School of Law’s symposium on "Perspectives on Gender and Business Ethics: Women in Corporate Governance") does not endeavor to add to the collective understanding of observed gender disparities in boardrooms and the C-suite — the senior …

Reframing And Reforming The Securities And Exchange Commission: Lessons From Literature On Change Leadership, Joan Macleod Heminway

Scholarly Works

As a reaction to perceived and actual regulatory failures at the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), from mistakes that contributed to the financial crisis to the Bernard Madoff affair, the SEC has been engaged in an operational transformation process. The growing literature on management and leadership in times of change -- change leadership literature -- offers a number of potentially valuable lenses through which we may assess reform at the SEC.

With the thought that securities regulators and others may learn valuable lessons about the SEC’s restructuring and reorganization from experts in change leadership, this Article explores a selected …