The Harvard European Law Association is pl eased to host a lunch talk on Wednesday\, April 8\, from 12:30 to 1 :15 p.m. in Hauser Hall 102 on "Corporate Power and the Politics of Change: Corporate Governing\, ESG\, and the EU–U .S. Divide".
Over the past decade\, corporations have moved into spaces traditionally occupied by public institutions—setting standards on climate\, labor\, and social policy\, taking public positions on contes ted issues\, and at times substituting for stalled democratic governance. < em>Corporate Power and the Politics of Change develops a framework for understanding this phenomenon—what is also referred to as corporate govern ing—as both a response to political paralysis and a source of new instituti onal and democratic risk. This panel uses the book as a starting point for a transatlantic conversation. It examines why the United States and the Eur opean Union have responded so differently to the rise of corporate power\, and what those divergent paths reveal about law\, legitimacy\, and the limi ts of delegation to private actors.
Matteo Gatti\, Rutgers La w School / ECGI
Matteo Gatti is a professor of law at Rutger s Law School and a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Ins titute. His work sits at the intersection of corporate law\, financial regu lation\, and political economy\, with a particular focus on corporate power \, governance structures\, and the interaction between firms\, markets\, an d public institutions. He holds degrees from the University of Milan (J.D.\ , summa cum laude)\, Harvard Law School (LL.M.)\, and the University of Bre scia (S.J.D.)\, and has worked in private legal practice and in-house couns el roles in multiple jurisdictions on corporate and M&A matters.
His scholarly work has been published or accepted for publication in leading jo urnals\, including the Stanford Law Review\, Journal of Corporation Law\, B YU Law Review\, North Carolina Law Review\,Columbia Law Review Forum\, Jour nal of Corporate Law Studies\, and the European Business Organization Law R eview. His research has been cited in major treatises and regulatory review s\, including by the European Commission. He is the author of two books\, i ncluding Corporate Power and the Politics of Change (Cambridge University P ress\, 2026).
Gatti has held visiting appointments and fellowships at institutions including Goethe University Frankfurt and Harvard Law School\ , and lectures and presents regularly around the world. His work and commen tary regularly appear in academic and policy forums such as the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance\, the CLS Blue Sky Blog\, the Oxford Business Law Blog\, and Jotwell\, as well as in mainstream outlets includin g the Financial Times\, CNN Business\, Forbes\, and Law360. He is admitted to the New York Bar.
Roy Shapira\, Reichman University / visi ting Harvard Law School / ECGI
Roy Shapira is Senior Visitin g Fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on Corporate Governance\, a Mehrot ra Visiting Professor at BU Business\, Professor of Law at Reichman Univers ity\, and Research Member at the European Corporate Governance Institute. S hapira's work focuses on corporate governance\, reputation\, corporate law litigation and economic regulation. He received his LLM and SJD degrees fro m Harvard Law School\, and has taught at Harvard Economics Department and B erkeley Law. Prior to joining academia Shapira worked as a litigator and a reputation consultant.
Giacomo Gattinara\, Fletcher School – European Commission
Giacomo Gattinara is EU Fellow and Profe ssor of International Trade law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also a Research Fellow at the Katholieke Univer siteit Leuven (Belgium) and a Member of the Legal Service of the European C ommission\, which he represented in more than 700 cases before the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union. He holds a PhD in Int ernational public law and EU law from the Law Faculty of the 'Sapienza' Uni versity of Rome\, an LL M and a MA in EU competition law from the King's Co llege of London\, an LL M in EU law from the College of Europe (Brugge) and a D.e.s.s. en contentieux communautaire from the IUIL of Luxembourg and th e Robert Schuman University of Strasbourg. He is a fully qualified lawyer i n Italy ('avvocato') since 2012 and is a former 'référendaire' at the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (chambers of Judge Mengozzi) .
Roberto Tallarita\, Harvard Law School
Rober to Tallarita is an Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Before being named an assistant professor\, he served as a Lecturer on Law\, Asso ciate Director of the Program on Corporate Governance\, and Terence M. Cons idine Senior Fellow in Law and Economics. He teaches and writes on corporat e law and governance\, and on the political and moral dimensions of markets and corporations.
Professor Tallarita’s current and recent research focuses on corporate law theory\, the corporate governance of AI\, ESG and corporate purpose\, corporate political spending\, and CEO political prefer ences. His academic papers appear or are forthcoming in the Business Lawyer \, Cornell Law Review\, Harvard Business Law Review\, Hastings Law Journal\ , Journal of Corporation Law\, Journal of Legal Analysis\, Southern Califor nia Law Review\, University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online\, Vanderbilt Law Review\, and Yale Journal on Regulation. He has also published articles for a broader audience in The Atlantic\, the Boston Review\, and the Harva rd Business Review. His research has been featured\, among other places\, i n Bloomberg Opinion\, the Economist\, the Financial Times\, the New York Ti mes\, and the Wall Street Journal.
Prior to joining Harvard\, Profess or Tallarita spent more than a decade in private practice\, working on tran snational corporate deals at leading law firms in Europe and the United Sta tes\, including as an associate in the corporate and M&A group of Kirkland & Ellis in New York\, and as a partner at a leading Italian law firm.
Professor Tallarita has a law degree from the Sapienza University of Rome\ , Italy\, and a doctorate (SJD) from Harvard Law School.
Lunc h will be provided.
CATEGORIES:Speaker/Panel LOCATION:Hauser Hall\; 102 Malkin Classroom GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="Daniel Gosch":MAILTO:dgosch@llm26.law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/corporate-power-and-the-politi cs-of-change-corporate-governing-esg-and-the-eu-u-s-divide/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/poster.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20260308T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR