Research Programs
Program on Corporate Governance
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The European Corporate Governance Institute awarded its 2019 prize for best working paper in law to a paper by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84.
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Value Innovation
June 26, 2018
During his nearly 10 years on the Harvard Law faculty, Holger Spamann S.J.D. ’09 has always enjoyed teaching corporate finance, but he’s also found it challenging. Some students have worked as traders at hedge funds or in private equity and others have been newly minted English majors who haven’t thought much about business concepts. The solution he has been exploring this year is a corporate finance course divided into four different modules, any of which students can opt out of depending on their knowledge level.
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The Corporate Practice Commentator recently announced the list of the Ten Best Corporate and Securities Articles selected by an annual poll of corporate and securities law academics. The list includes scholarship by Harvard Law Professor Guhan Subramanian J.D./M.B.A. ’98 and several HLS alums.
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HLS faculty maintain top position in SSRN citation rankings
January 24, 2018
Statistics released by the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) indicate that, as of the end of 2017, Harvard Law School faculty members have continued to feature prominently on SSRN’s list of the 100 most-cited law professors.
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Coates named fellow of European Corporate Governance Institute
November 14, 2017
Harvard Law Professor John F. Coates has been named a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).
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Sharing Ideas for Shareholders—and Others
October 21, 2016
The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation blog has been serving as a forum for exchange of ideas and debate among lawyers, executives, institutional investors, academics and regulators for the past 10 years.
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Holger Spamann, expert in corporate governance and finance, appointed professor of law at Harvard
May 10, 2016
Holger Spamann L.L.M. '01 S.J.D. '09, an expert in corporate governance and finance, has been appointed as a tenured professor of law at Harvard Law School.
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The Corporate Practice Commentator recently announced the list of the Ten Best Corporate and Securities Articles selected by an annual poll of corporate and securities law academics. The list includes three articles from Harvard Law faculty associated with the Program on Corporate Governance, Professors Lucian Bebchuk, John Coates, and Jesse Fried.
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All-Star Team on a Winning Streak
October 5, 2015
Corporate governance scholars at Harvard Law keep putting up great numbers.
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Entrenchment Index of Bebchuk, Cohen and Ferrell applied by more than 300 research papers
June 11, 2015
As of May 2015, more than 300 research studies have applied the Entrenchment Index put forward in the study What Matters in Corporate Governance?, published by Harvard Law faculty members Lucian Bebchuk, Alma Cohen and Allen Ferrell.
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The legal journal Corporate Practice Commentator recently announced the 10 Best Corporate and Securities Articles of 2014. Half of those selected this year were written by Harvard Law School faculty members.
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The New Empiricists
May 4, 2015
For the growing number of empiricists at HLS, there’s nothing quite so satisfying—or unimpeachable—as resolving a thorny, often contentious, legal or policy question through rigorous analysis of cold, hard data.
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An article by Harvard Law School S.J.D. candidate Andrew Tuch has been voted by the nation’s corporate and securities law professors as one of the top ten corporate and securities law papers of 2011. The article, “Multiple Gatekeepers,” was originally published in the Virginia Law Review.
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On World Bank blog, Bebchuk debates executive compensation
February 17, 2012
In an online forum, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk engaged in a debate with Ohio State University Professor Rene Stulz regarding the role executive compensations played in the financial crisis.
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Bebchuk testifies before Senate Banking committee (video)
February 15, 2012
On Feb. 15, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection at a hearing entitled “Pay for Performance: Incentive Compensation at Large Financial Institutions.”
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The end of corporate limited liability in Brazil
February 6, 2012
Whether owners of limited liability companies should be subject to personal liability has been the subject of much controversy lately, in the U.S. and around the world. On Jan. 25, Bruno Salama, spoke to an HLS audience on the topic in the context of his research project and book “The End of Limited Liability in Brazil” tracing the status of corporate limited liability and veil piercing in Brazil. A professor of law at the Fundação Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo, Salama was joined by HLS Professors Reinier Kraakman and Mark Roe ’75 at an event organized by the Harvard Law School Brazilian Studies Association.
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Bridging theory and practice in corporate law
January 24, 2012
For the last several years, former Harvard Law School Dean Robert C. Clark ’72 has broken with tradition in teaching his mergers and acquisitions course. It isn’t enough to read leading cases, he realized; students still may leave the classroom without any real understanding of how to structure a deal, identify and avoid pitfalls, and recognize why personalities matter—in short, how M&As work in the real world.
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Bebchuk recognized for excellence in corporate governance
September 23, 2011
At the 2011 annual meeting of the International Corporate Governance Network held in Paris, Professor Lucian Bebchuk was awarded an ICGN award for excellence in corporate governance. ICGN awards are given annually in recognition of “exceptional achievements in the corporate governance field.”
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In its recent annual meeting held in San Diego, the Western Economic Association International elected Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk to be its president-elect during 2011-2012.
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Holger Spamann L.L.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’09, an expert in corporate governance and finance, will join the Harvard Law School faculty in July as an Assistant Professor of Law.
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Harvard Law Faculty Lead SSRN Ranking
January 20, 2011
Harvard Law School’s faculty earned the top ranking for the number of academic papers authored and downloaded on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), according to cumulative statistics released for 2010. HLS faculty members captured 10 of the top 100 slots–including the number one slot–among the top 100 law school professors (in all legal areas) in terms of readers’ use of their work.
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Corporate Governance Network debuts new E-Journal
July 21, 2010
The Social Science Research Network recently announced the distribution of a new e-journal on Bankruptcy, Financial Distress, & Reorganization provided by Corporate Governance Network (CGN).
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Two years after the government bailout of Bear Stearns set off the first shock wave, the Bulletin interviewed HLS faculty and alumni on what went wrong, on where the greatest dangers remain in our financial system and what to do about them.
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HLS cited for impact on corporate governance
March 31, 2010
HLS’s Program on Corporate Governance—and many individuals affiliated with HLS—are among the most influential leaders in the study of corporate governance, according to a recent review by Directorship magazine. Thirty-four HLS-affiliates made the Directorship 100 list – an annual list of the 100 most influential directors, professors, regulators, politicians, and advisers who have made a lasting impact on corporate governance.
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The op-ed, “Bankers had cashed in before the music stopped,” was co-written by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, Visiting Professor Alma Cohen, and Lecturer on Law Holger Spamann S.J.D. ’09. It appeared in the December 7, 2009, edition of the Financial Times.
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Bebchuk: Should Bondholders be Bailed Out?
November 9, 2009
A year after the United States government allowed the investment bank Lehman Brothers to fail but then bailed out AIG, and after governments around the world bailed out many other banks, key question remains: when and how should authorities rescue financial institutions?
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Bebchuk and Spamann in NYT: Reducing incentives for risk-taking
October 13, 2009
This op-ed co-written by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 and Holger Spamann, “Reducing incentives for risk-taking,” appeared in the October 12, 2009, edition of the New York Times. Bebchuk is a professor of law, economics and finance and director of the Program on Corporate Governance at Harvard Law School, and Spamann is co-executive director and a fellow of the HLS corporate governance program. Their op-ed builds on their joint paper, “Regulating Bankers’ Pay.”
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Bebchuk: Unblocking corporate governance reform
October 1, 2009
The op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, entitled “Unblocking corporate governance reform,” appeared in Project Syndicate. This op-ed is the most recent installment of Bebchuk’s commentary, which he offers monthly in a series of columns entitled “The rules of the game.”
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Bebchuk in WSJ: Bonus guarantees can fuel risky moves
August 27, 2009
The following op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’81 S.J.D. ’84, “Bonus guarantees can fuel risky moves,” appeared in the August 27, 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal. He is the director of the Program on Corporate Governance at HLS.
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Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, director of HLS’s Program on Corporate Governance wrote “Let the Good Times Roll Again?” for his July column for Project Syndicate, an international association of 425 newspapers in 150 countries. His recent article draws on his testimony before the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and his white papers “Equity Compensation for Long-Term Performance” and “Regulating Bankers’ Pay.”
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Research with Impact
September 1, 2008
The visionaries who supported these programs can already see results Credit: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images The impact of Harvard research programs extends well beyond Cambridge.
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Reaching out to practitioners and policy-makers
April 1, 2007
One of the main goals of the recently established Program on Corporate Governance is to strengthen ties between academia—especially HLS—and the worlds of practice and policy-making.
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The Shareholders’ Champion
April 1, 2007
An HLS professor is "the Elvis Presley of shareholder activism." And one of his fans is a key player in China.
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Research finds directors’ options were favorably timed
December 18, 2006
The HLS Program on Corporate Governance released a new study today called Lucky Directors, by Professor Lucian Bebchuk and co-authors Yaniv Grinsten and Urs Peyer suggesting that outside directors' options, and not only executives' options, have been favorably timed to an extent that cannot be explained by mere luck.
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Professor Bebchuk investigates option backdating
November 17, 2006
The HLS Program on Corporate Governance recently released a study by Professor Lucian Bebchuk and co-authors Yaniv Grinsten and Urs Peyer, which examined the use of stock option backdating.
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On Friday, Novemeber 4, The Program on Corporate Governance at HLS will host a panel discussion to debate personal liability for corporate directors. This question became a central one in the recent WorldCom and Enron cases, in which directors paid settlement fees out of their own pockets. Panelists will consider whether personal liability makes directors accountable, or whether it could deter directors from serving and make serving directors excessively defensive.