Symposium Spotlight: Michael Grace Jr.
Are You An Entrepreneur Lawyer?
Why Financial Regulation Keeps Falling Short
Modern finance is fast moving, extremely complex, and contributes to pervasive unknowns. Yet the processes governing how finance is regulated are typically slow, highly deliberative, and often reflect deeply ingrained and incredibly optimistic assumptions about our ability to understand the financial system and the potential impact of regulatory intervention. In our new paper, “Why Financial Regulation Keeps Falling Short,” we identify the key drivers of this fundamental mismatch between finance and financial regulation,…
Wachtell Lipton on Tax and ESG
Proponents of enhanced environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) disclosure have identified corporate income tax as a relevant metric. While it is premature to predict how ESG standards in this regard will evolve, a key area of focus is tax arbitrage, including profit-shifting among jurisdictions. Boards should be aware of the possibility of detailed country-by-country public disclosure intended to reveal scenarios involving high profits in jurisdictions with little economic activity and low profits in jurisdictions where…
Le professeur et le blogue (notes de lecture)
Je viens enfin de mettre la main sur l’ouvrage Devenir professeur, collectif dirigé par les professeurs Noreau et Bernheim et paru à la dernière rentrée universitaire. L’ouvrage se veut général et ne se limite pas du tout à la carrière de professeur de droit comme en témoigne la diversité des spécialités des nombreux contributeurs. Reste que les juristes, à commencer par les initiateurs du projet, sont très représentés et que cela donne une couleur particulière…
Symposium Spotlight: Mason Ashe
How Congress Got It Right on Audit Oversight
President Donald Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion budget calls for folding the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), America’s audit watchdog, into the Securities and Exchange Commission, the nation’s primary financial regulator. The stated goal is to eliminate duplicative regulations and save money. It would do neither. Instead, it would send a harmful message that high quality audits are no longer a priority.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 established the PCAOB as a not-for-profit corporation whose…
Cleary Gottlieb Discusses Upcoming LIBOR Transition
On 16 January 2020, the Bank of England (the “BoE”), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) and the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (“RFRWG”) published a set of documents outlining priorities and milestones for 2020 on LIBOR transition.[1]
UK regulators have signalled that 2020 is a critical year in the transition efforts from LIBOR to alternative risk-free rates such as the Sterling Overnight Index Average (“SONIA”), the RFRWG recommended replacement rate for…
Symposium Spotlight: Shelia Huggins
Key Governance Lessons from the New Association of Corporate Counsel Survey
The newly released Chief Legal Officers survey (“Survey”) from the Association of Corporate Counsel (“ACC”)[1] is an important governance development to the extent that it supports a board’s ability to exercise oversight of its company’s legal department. Overall, the ACC findings underscore the organizational value of a CLO hierarchically positioned to influence corporate strategy.
A board’s ability to evaluate the Survey results depends on the board’s appreciation of its specific fiduciary obligation to monitor…