Corporations

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Last week, I attended the National Business Law Scholars Conference at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, NJ.  It was a great conference, featuring (among others) BLPB co-blogger Josh Fershee (who presented a paper on the business judgment rule and moderated a panel on business entity design) and BLPB guest blogger Todd Haugh (who presented a paper on Sarbanes-Oxley and over criminalization).  I presented a paper on curation in crowdfunding intermediation and moderated a panel on insider trading.  It was a full two days of business law immersion.

The keynote lunch speaker the second day of the conference was Kent Greenfield.  He compellingly argued for the promotion of corporate personhood, following up on comments he has made elsewhere (including here and here) in recent years.  In his remarks, he causally mentioned B corporations and social enterprise more generally.  I want to pick up on that thread to make a limited point here that follows up somewhat on my post on shareholder primacy and wealth maximization from last week.

This week, while preparing for and attending the National Business Law Scholars Conference, I have had to deal with a Tennessee corporate law “brushfire” of sorts generated by a Nashville Business Journal (NBJ) article published earlier this week.  The article, written by a Nashville lawyer, took a somewhat alarmist–and substantively inaccurate–view of a recent addition to the Tennessee Business Corporation Act drafted by the Business Entity Study Committee (BESC) of the Tennessee Bar Association, of which I am a member (and about which I have written here in the past, including here, here, and here).  Specifically, the author asserted that Tennessee’s adoption of the text of Model Business Corporation Act Section 14.09 creates new liability for Tennessee corporate directors–especially directors of insolvent Tennessee corporations.  Somewhat predictably, calls and emails from directors, executives, and the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office (which, itself, received many calls) ensued.

By design, and (we believe) by effect, the statutory section at issue clarifies the duties of directors of dissolved Tennessee corporations and establishes a safe harbor from liability.  Accordingly, the drafting team from the BESC (me included) believed we had to jump in and correct the mischaracterizations in the…

The New Yorker recently ran an interesting article entitled Patagonia’s Anti-Growth Strategy. Patagonia is a certified B corporation and a California benefit corporation.

As a customer, Patagonia is my favorite company for casual/outdoor clothing, and one of my favorite companies in any industry. Initially, I thought Patagonia’s clothes were insanely expensive, but their clothes have been much cheaper on a “cost-per-wear” basis than any other clothes I have bought. In an age of cheap products and rampant consumerism, Patagonia is striking a chord with those who wish to buy fewer, quality products.

A taste of the article follows, but go read the entire thing.

The company’s anti-materialistic stance ramped up on Black Friday, 2011, with a memorable full-page advertisement in the Times that read, “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” The ad’s text broke down the environmental costs of the company’s top-selling R2 fleece sweater and asked consumers to think twice before buying it or any other product. The attention the ad received helped to bump Patagonia’s 2012 sales significantly. . . . Patagonia is trying second-hand-clothing sales at its shop in Portland, Oregon, and has made product repair and recycling a growing part of its business model. It recently invested

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I just returned early Monday from this year’s Law and Society Association conference.  I presented my paper on LLC operating agreements as contracts–about which I later will blog here–on a panel as part of a CRN (Collaborative Research Network) on corporate and securities law.  I enjoyed the conference and being in Seattle (a city I rarely get a chance to visit).

I noticed something in a number of the sessions I attended, however, that I want to share here.  A number of scholars referenced, in their presentations or in comments to the presentations of others, “shareholder primacy.”  As I listened, it was clear these folks were referring to the prioritizing of shareholder interests–especially financial interests–ahead of the interests of other stakeholders in corporate decision-making, rather than the elements of corporate control (few as there are) enjoyed by shareholders.  As I began to recognize this, several things happened in rapid succession.

First, I remembered David Millon’s recent paper on this subject, which (among other things) tells a history of the use of the “shareholder primacy” term.  It’s well worth a read.  Or a re-read!

Second, I remembered Steve Bainbridge’s earlier work on this same topic. Ditto on that paper; read…

In my first post of this series, I asked whether business leaders had unknowingly provided the legal industry with a long-term solution to declining interest in the legal profession and potential waning influence.  I suggested that business leaders may be the driving force that ends up saving the legal profession.  In my second and third posts, I discussed the current state of in-house attorneys and law firms.  Today is my birthday, so it is a great present to be able to share my view on the future of the legal profession, and how shifts may occur. 

Eventually, corporations can (and most probably will, in my view) evolve their thinking about “legal strategies” (as Professors Bird and Orozco suggest) to the point that lawyers are essential resources in developing sophisticated corporate planning. In order for this evolution to take place throughout the business world to any great degree, it will take time, experience, and success with the legal strategy concepts.  In other words, lawyers must become valuable not only for their legal skills, but also because they have inherent business talent resulting from advanced training. 

 

If this conversion is to occur, companies …

This week I have found myself reading the co-authored, empirical piece by C.N.V. Krishnan, Frank Partnoy, and Randall Thomas titled, Top Hedge Funds and Shareholder Activism.  Through their sample they observe that top hedge funds have repetitional capital in that the market responds more positively to announcements by certain hedge funds with certain features, like a longer track record, larger assets under management and management participation through board of director seats.  Its an interesting and insightful article on the role, and value, of hedge funds. The authors conclude that 

The market appears to anticipate the superior performance of these top hedge funds even before announcement of intervention. Moreover, post-intervention target-firm operating performance associated with these top hedge funds is significantly superior to that of other hedge fund activists.

The focus on reputation reminded of Elisabeth de Fontenay’s good work on reputation in private equity.  Her article, Private Equity Firms as Gatekeepers, 33 Review of Banking & Financial Law 115-189 (2014).  de Fontenay argues in her piece that: 

private equity firms act as gatekeepers in the debt markets. As repeat players, private equity firms use their reputations with creditors to mitigate the problems of borrower adverse selection

…

CRN: #46  Corporate and Securities Law in Society

 LSA 2015 Schedule

 

THURSDAY, MAY 28

 

 

2:45 PM – 4:30 PM

3319—Roundtable: Shareholders, Stewardship & Accountability

Room: Mercer 

 

  
 

FRIDAY, MAY 29

 

 

9:30 AM – 11:15 AM

3321—Corporations and Their Constituencies: Employees, Customers, Creditors, and the Public

Room: Adams

1:30 PM – 3:15 PM

3322—Banking, Securities, and Beyond: Evaluating Financial Regulation in Varied Contexts

Room: Adams

3:30 PM – 5:15 PM

3325—Business Decisionmaking and Business Law: Exploring Implications for Constituencies and Communities

Room: Adams 

5:30 PM – 7:15 PM

3326—New Insights on Law and Regulation’s Evolution and Efficacy

Room: Adams

SATURDAY, MAY 30

 

 

 

8:15 AM – 10:00 AM

3320—Ownership and Control: New Considerations on Litigation, Governance Structures, and Shareholder Activism

Room: Adams

I haven’t met Hollywood producer Edward Zwick, who brought the movie and the concept of Blood Diamonds to the world’s attention, but I have had the honor of meeting with medical rock star, and Nobel Prize nominee Dr. Denis Mukwege. Both Zwick and Mukwege had joined numerous NGOs in advocating for a mandatory conflict minerals law in the EU. I met the doctor when I visited Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011 on a fact finding trip for a nonprofit that focuses on maternal and infant health and mortality. Since Mukwege works with mass rape victims, my colleague and I were delighted to have dinner with him to discuss the nonprofit. I also wanted to get his reaction to the Dodd-Frank conflict minerals regulation, which was not yet in effect. I don’t remember him having as strong an opinion on the law as he does now, but I do remember that he adamantly wanted the US to do something to stop the bloodshed that he saw first hand every day.

The success of the Dodd-Frank law is debatable in terms of stemming the mass rape, use of child slaves, and violence against innocent civilians. Indeed, earlier this month…

In my first post of this series, I asked whether business leaders had unknowingly provided the legal industry with a long-term solution to declining interest in the legal profession and potential waning influence.  I suggested that business leaders may be the driving force that ends up saving the legal profession, and its “respectability”.  In my second post, I discussed the current state of in-house attorneys.  In this post, I would like to look at the current state of private firms as it relates to the in-house attorney discussion.  My view is that the competitive marketplace reactions of a growing number of firms are partially contributing to the dimming of their own future prospects.  Firms will need to evolve rather quickly; how they can, I’ll discuss in a future post.  However, because of the firms’ relatively weaker position compared to corporations, many firms are in very precarious circumstances.

In this interim period between past firm dominance and the future corporate acceptance of Professors Bird and Orozco’s “corporate legal strategy” (in which attorneys are fully accepted and integrated as part of business teams in corporations, resulting in greater legal opportunities), firms are struggling.   From my discussions with attorneys, I have learned that…

My former research assistant Sam Moultrie and his colleague Andrea Schoch Brooks have authored a short article entitled “Defining a Proper Purpose for Books and Records Actions in Delaware.“

The article unpacks two recent Delaware books and records cases: AbbVie and Citigroup. Worthwhile reading for those who wish to stay current on this area of the law.