Law Commons^™

Bridging The Gap In Corporate Governance For Interlocking Directors In Colombia, Juan D. Ovalle

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Climate, Clarity, Controversy: A Constitutional, Statutory, And Policy Analysis Of The Sec’S Proposed Climate Disclosure Rules, Astoneia O. Moss

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The burgeoning ESG movement has heightened investors’ interest in how companies steward the environment in which they operate; manage their human capital; and implement strategies to effectively manage and fulfill the desires of stakeholders. As a result, the SEC has sought to implement a mandatory climate-related disclosure regime to provide investors with public companies’ climate-related data to assist in the investment decision-making process. The proposed climate-related disclosure rule has faced criticism from businesses, politicians, and legal scholars on constitutional, statutory, and policy grounds. This Comment concludes that based on the statutory language of the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities …

Catalyzing Climate Resilience In The Electric Utility Sector: Investor-Backed Utilities Must Prepare For The Approaching Storm, Jose J. Gonzalez

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

Communities and businesses that fail to take proactive measures will be devastated by the impacts of climate change. Across the United States, public and private entities have taken steps to protect companies and communities from climate change. However, financial restrictions and shareholder concerns have slowed such a response from the electric utility sector. This inaction has devastated communities such as Paradise, California and Lahaina, Hawaii. This Comment identifies how electric utility companies should utilize recently passed federal legislation, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, to finance large-scale projects to update America's power grid. This Comment also argues …

Antitrust, Labor Markets, And Issue-Spotting Dei Initiatives, Francesca Pisano

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

The End Of Remedies?, Joshua Shapiro

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Negotiating For Certainty In An Uncertain World, Matthew D. Kent

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

When Can An Agreement On Environmental Policies Comply With U.S. Antitrust Laws?, Nathan Mendelsohn

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Enforcers Signal Heightened Scrutiny Of Algorithm Use To Inform Pricing Decisions, Lohr A. Beck, Carley H. Thompson

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Subsidiaries, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

Corporate groups comprise parent companies and one or more subsidiaries, which parents use to manage liabilities, transactions, operations, and regulation. Those subsidiaries can also be used to manage criminal accountability when multiple entities within a corporate group share responsibility for a common offense. A parent, for instance, might reach a settlement with prosecutors that requires its subsidiary to plead guilty to a crime, without conviction of the parent itself—a subsidiary-only conviction (SOC). The parent will thus avoid bearing collateral consequences—such as contracting or industry bars—that would follow its own conviction. For the prosecutor, such settlements can respond to criminal law’s …

101 Lawyers: Attorney Appearances In Twitter V. Musk, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

In summer 2022, Twitter sued Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over his refusal to close his agreed-to $44 billion acquisition of the social-media company. Twitter v. Musk had the makings of corporate law’s trial of the century. Leading law firms represented Twitter, Musk, and third parties in a dispute with enormous financial, social, and political implications. In the lead up to trial, however, Musk relented and closed the deal. The corporate trial of the century was a bust, over almost as soon as it began.

But in the meantime, in Twitter’s eighty-six days …

The Fresh Start Paradox: Economic Disaster Relief Available To Title 11 Debtors, Kellsie Davis Ruane

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) has been providing disaster relief in the form of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDLs”) since its inception in 1953. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CARES Act charged the SBA with issuing forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) to small businesses which would otherwise face permanent closure. Though the CARES Act did not specifically grant the SBA authority to do so, the SBA interpreted its powers to include the ability to set requirements for loan approval which were not laid out in the Act itself. Specifically, the SBA promulgated a rule …

Disclosure Procedure, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

Securities disclosure is a human process. Each year, public companies collectively spend over fifteen million hours producing disclosures that undergird an equities market with tens of trillions in market capitalization. The procedures they follow in doing so affect whether their disclosures contain misstatements or omissions—errors that can cause trading losses for investors, and litigation for issuers. Yet despite the importance of the disclosures that firms produce, the literature says little about how they do it, including whether they are spending too much, too little, or just enough on their disclosure procedures. To fill that gap, this Article uses original surveys …

From Director Liability To Officer Liability To Esg Caremark Claims: A Natural Evolution?, Gareth Mchugh

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

With the McDonald’s decision, officers and directors could face Caremark liability for the first time, and this decision could also lead to an influx of ESG-based Caremark claims in Delaware Courts. This Comment explains that, while ESG Caremark claims would force corporations to adopt ESG oversight systems to avoid liability, the very political, social, and legal environment that created a growing call for ESG Caremark claims presents a beneficial opportunity for corporations to appeal to consumers and investors by proactively adopting ESG oversight systems. Corporations are at a nexus where they can either willingly adopt ESG oversight systems and reap …

To Have Or Have Not: The Limits Of Comply-Or-Explain Governance In An American Exchange, Johnson A. Salisbury Jr.

Emory Law Journal

In 2020, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (“Nasdaq”) proposed a comply-or-explain governance rule to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), aimed at increasing diversity in companies listed on its exchange. The resulting listing rule—approved by the SEC in 2021—was met with a mixed chorus of cheers and jeers from the public and regulated companies. Missing from that chorus, however, was an analysis of the effectiveness of Nasdaq’s approach in using a flexible, predominantly international comply-or-explain governance model to regulate the companies listed on its exchange.

Framed as a disclosure code, Nasdaq’s Listing Rule 5605(f)(2) requires listed companies …

Is "Public Company" Still A Viable Regulatory Category?, George S. Georgiev

Faculty Articles

This Article suggests that the ubiquitous “public company” regulatory category, as currently constructed, has outlived its effectiveness in fulfilling core goals of the modern administrative state. An ever-expanding array of federal economic regulation hinges on public company status, but “public company” differs from most other regulatory categories in that it requires an affirmative opt-in by the subject entity. In practice, firms today become subject to public company regulation only if they need access to the public capital markets, which is much less of a business imperative than it once was due to the proliferation of private financing options. Paradoxically, then, …

The Public’S Companies, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

This Essay uses a series of survey studies to consider how public understandings of public and private companies map into urgent debates over the role of the corporation in American society. Does a social-media company, for example, owe it to its users to follow the free-speech principles embodied in the First Amendment? May corporate managers pursue environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) policies that could reduce short-term or long-term profits? How should companies respond to political pushback against their approaches to free expression or ESG?

The studies’ results are consistent with understandings that both public and private companies have greater public …

Shareholder Inspection Rights: From Credible Basis To Rational Belief, Lynn Bai

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

Jurisdictions are split on the standard of proof for shareholder inspection lawsuits when inspections are for the purpose of investigating managerial misconduct. Delaware and its followers apply a credible basis standard that calls for extrinsic evidence, beyond mere suspicion, curiosity, or disagreement with management, to permit an inference of misconduct. A minority of jurisdictions require shareholders to show merely a rational belief that mismanagement likely happened. Rational belief can be satisfied by sound logic without referencing extrinsic evidence. The Delaware Supreme Court rejected rational belief for fear that a permissive standard would lead to a cascade of frivolous inspections, although …

Inherently Incompatible: The Irreconcilable Tension Between Corporate Negligence Claims And The Federal Tort Claims Act, Veronica J. Finkelstein

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall: A Survey Of Current Public And Private Initiatives Addressing Board Diversity & A Proposed Sec Diversity Disclosure To Help Increase Board Diversity, Gabrielle Hunter

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

40 Acres And A Mule: Accountability For Corporations To Provide Reparations To Historically Black Colleges And Universities For Profits From Slave Labor, Meghan K. Marks

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

The Market For Corporate Criminals, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

This Article identifies problems and opportunities at the intersection of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate crime and compliance. In M&A, criminal successor liability is of particular importance, because it is quantitatively less predictable and qualitatively more threatening to buyers than successor liability in tort or contract. Private successor liability requires a buyer to bear bounded economic costs, which can in turn be reallocated to sellers via the contracting process. Criminal successor liability, however, threatens a buyer with non-indemnifiable and potentially ruinous punishment for another firm’s wrongful acts.

This threat may inhibit the marketability of businesses that have criminal exposure, …

Corporate Response To The War In Ukraine: Stakeholder Governance Or Stakeholder Pressure?, Anete Pajuste, Anna Toniolo

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

This Article empirically investigates the corporate response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the framework of the stakeholder capitalism debate. Some describe corporate leaders’ decision to withdraw from Russia as an example of stakeholder governance, maintaining that they placed social responsibility over profits. Others question the authenticity of corporate support for Ukraine and argue that companies left Russia mainly driven by operational and reputational concerns.

Against this backdrop, we conduct an empirical study of reactions to the outbreak of the war from companies in the S&P500 and STOXX600 indices. We explore whether managers effectively decided mostly on ethical and …

Soft Law: The Optimal Legal Framework For Global Financial Regulation, Yussuf A. Aleem

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The regulation of global finance comprises an unorthodox legal framework. Unlike other areas of economic regulation or international law, more generally, this framework is not directed through intergovernmental organizations with formal legal status. Moreover, commitments (or best practice standards) made by various regulatory officials are non-binding and subject to significant variation. This departure is especially unique when comparing financial regulation to areas such as international trade law or environmental law.[1]

The purpose of this Paper is to provide a positive analysis explaining the prevalence of this form of “soft” law, and normatively suggest why such a framework is the …

I Can Still Hear You Saying You Would Never Break The Chain: How Higher Education Admissions Policies Put Law Firms At Risk Of Losing Corporate Clients, Jolie Abrams

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Circuit Split Analysis: Involuntary Arbitration Agreements, Tyler Blackington

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

The Big Ban(G) Theory, Max Chen, Liu Ming Xin

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The term “Big Tech” is referred to: Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Google and Microsoft. These companies are the five largest multinational online service or computer hardware and software companies and have the top position in the stock market by market share. Data indicated that these five firms have made over 700 acquisitions from 1987 to 2019. (Google 32%, Microsoft 31%, Apple 15%, Amazon 11%, and Facebook 11%). After 2001, The DOJ and FTC began to use NAICS codes to report HSR (Hart-Scott-Rodino) transactions. The code name is NAICS 518 for data processing, hosting, and related services (mainly including Google, Amazon, …

A Future Of Mandatory Environment, Social, And Governance (Esg) Disclosures: A Review Of Public Comments As A Case Study In The Impact Of Esg, Jessica Dennis Jackson

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

No abstract provided.

Universal Owners, Shareholder Primacy, And Stakeholderism, Daniel Irvin

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The rise of massive asset owners like large pension funds and sovereign wealth funds has created interest in the phenomenon of Universal Owners. The climate crisis, environmental degradation, and worsening inequality have also led to challenges to the current models of corporate governance, with a particular interest on the idea of corporate purpose. This paper fills a gap by addressing the intersection of these two trends, proposing a framework by which Universal Owners should view corporate purpose. I argue that from a returns-maximizing perspective, Universal Owners should prefer a flavor of shareholder primacy that believes the corporation’s purpose is to …

The Extraterritorial Reach Of Section 10(B): A Wolf Hunt Off Wall Street, Radley Gillis

Emory Law Journal

Born to combat the market effects of the Great Depression, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 protects American investors and maintains American confidence in the U.S. securities market. These objectives are largely accomplished through the imposition of liability from Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rule 10b-5. These federal laws impose civil and criminal penalties for domestic insider trading and securities fraud violations. Because Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 only apply domestically, when securities violations occur both within the United States and abroad, the reach of federal law becomes questionable, leaving federal courts with a complex …

An Ocean Apart: The Mandatory Takeover Rule In Brazil And In Europe, Jorge Brito Pereira

Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review

The common statement that there are two different regulatory systems concerning the mandatory takeover rule – the market rule system and the equal opportunity system – is, in practice, overly simplistic: facing the choice between freedom and strict regulation on whether the control premium should be proportionally shared with all non-controlling shareholders, some jurisdictions have adopted a hybrid solution. The Brazilian mandatory takeover rule (re)approved in 2001 is a good example. This paper will comprehensively analyse the Brazilian and European rules on mandatory takeover bids, using empirical data about the Brazilian markets and details of various cases that tested the …