This is the first comprehensive examination of the stock option backdating litigation. One reason why it is important to study the stock option backdating litigation is that it was a blend of financial reporting fraud and executive misappropriation of assets. Sometimes the executive...

The financial crisis has placed executive pay at center stage in the corporate governance reform debate in the United States and around the world. We consider whether a judge-made solution to the problem will support the regulatory reform effort to reduce or eliminate excessive compensation. In...

This article examines the Proper Purpose Rule and the Exercise of Directors' Power in the recent JKX case as decided by the UK Supreme court. The decision of the JKX case now represents the leading Common law authority on the interpretation and application of the Proper Purpose Rule (the Rule or...

Does personal litigation risk for independent directors materially affect firm valuation, compensation-related issues for independent directors, and board composition decisions? We use the unexpected In re Investors Bancorp decision in 2017 by the Delaware Supreme Court, which lowered the...

Federal law mandates that audit and compensation committees of public companies be comprised entirely of independent directors. The assumption underlying these legal requirements is that independent directors are more likely to act as monitors of the company's top management. In this paper, we...

After decades of declining litigation risk, independent directors of public companies are viewed as effectively immune to personal litigation costs. However, the unexpected In re Investors Bancorp decision by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2017 lowered the liability threshold only for directors...

This piece considers the codification of the directors' duty to consider the interests of creditors in Irish company law. Although it is well-established as one of the fiduciary duties of directors, the duty to have regard to the interests of creditors when the company is insolvent or is...

Using the recent events at AIG as a case‐study, the paper tests the efficacy of the framework of contemporary corporate governance – namely, the monitoring role assigned to the boards of public corporations and an emphasis on director independence. The article refers to statutory filings,...