Thank you Bob [Stebbins]. It is such a pleasure to be in a university town. We drove in just after 11pm last night [September 12] and even then you could feel the energy, the energy that comes with curiosity, a thirst for knowledge and a belief that knowledge, know how, effort and community will bring us a better tomorrow. As we drove down Mission Street this morning — past the same Buffalo Wild Wings where…

Stockholder representatives in class and derivative actions are supposed to share in any recovery on the same terms as other stockholders.[1]  Absent court approval, class counsel typically cannot share fee awards with their clients.[2]  Indeed, class-action litigator William Lerach famously served time in federal prison after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge related to the payment of kickbacks to class plaintiffs.[3] Direct payments between class counsel and their clients are…

The stakes for responsible corporate stewardship have never been higher. Corporations today account for a greater proportion of our collective productivity than ever before.  Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 71 are corporations, and only 29 are countries.  U.S. corporations alone generated profits of $2.3 trillion in 2018 — the highest in history.  Reflecting their unprecedented scale, U.S. corporations have been blamed for accelerating environmental degradation and aggravating disparities in income and wealth. …