Business

An HLS professor is "the Elvis Presley of shareholder activism." And one of his fans is a key player in China.

Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retail chain, has agreed to amend its corporate bylaws in response to a shareholder proposal submitted by Professor Lucian Bebchuk in December of 2006.

The following op-ed was published in The Wall Street Journal on January 6, 2007: Apple Computer announced a week ago the conclusions of a special board committee that examined the "improper dating" of over 6,000 option grants during 1997-2002. The committee found no basis for having less than "complete confidence in CEO Steve Jobs and the senior management team," placing full responsibility for past problems on the company's former CFO and general counsel.

Susan Lytle Lipton LL.M. '71 practiced securities law and was the first woman to become a partner at Greenberg, Traurig, Hoffman, Lipoff & Quentel in Florida.

Law, too, is going offshore. Two Harvard Law students are getting a firsthand look.

As the managing partner of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City, John R. Ettinger ’78 spends a lot of time thinking about the future—specifically, how to position his firm most advantageously for the long term.

The following op-ed by Professor Lucian Bebchuk, Investors must have power, not just figures on pay, was published in The Financial Times on July 28, 2006: The US Securities and Exchange Commission's vote this week to expand disclosure requirements for executive pay is a major step forward.

The influence of a great teacher like Dave Herwitz brings him nearer to immortality than most of us get. In my own nearly 50 years of professional life, I have met numerous wonderful individuals and benefited from the wisdom and character of many.

The following op-ed, co-written by Professor Hal Scott, The End of American dominance in capital markets, was published in The Financial Times on July 19, 2006: Is a ticker-taped Trojan Horse soon to be planted on European shores, filled with an army of US regulators, Sarbanes-Oxley accountants and overzealous plaintiff lawyers?

The Delaware Chancery Court issued a decision in the litigation initiated by Professor Lucian Bebchuk against CA Inc. The decision forced CA to withdraw its plan to exclude Bebchuk's poison pill proposal from the corporate ballot and opens the door to shareholder voting on such proposals in other companies.

Some of the biggest deal makers put the world on hold while they teach in a class led by Professor Guhan Subramanian '98. But they're also there to learn a thing or two about negotiation.

Traveling across the country, sowing apple seeds and watching them grow sounds like an American folktale. For Linda Singer '91, it's her job.

After a decade of soaring to unprecedented levels, executive compensation is the subject of an intense debate. In their just published "Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation," HLS Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. '80 S.J.D. '84 and UC Berkeley School of Law Professor Jesse Fried '92 explore the causes and consequences of flawed compensation arrangements.

On October 15, a new book on executive pay and corporate governance by HLS Professor Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried, Harvard Law School class of 1993, will be the focus of symposium at Columbia Law School.

Cornelius Prior '62 is chairman and CEO of Atlantic Tele-Network Inc., based in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

For 25 years, Douglas Foy ' 73 served as head of the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England-based environmental advocacy group whose frequent lawsuits changed the landscape of the region, literally. But now Foy has jumped from the courthouse to the State House, named by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ' 75 as the first chief of Commonwealth Development.

Stacy Stern '93 isn't as famous as the Pets.com sock puppet. She never raised billions from venture capitalists or played foosball in the office during the height of the Internet boom. Yet in the annals of Silicon Valley, Stern can boast of a more impressive distinction: success.

Most law school grads who began their careers at large law firms probably remember the research assignments they received as young associates, with the long hours, the frustrating Lexis searches and the overbroad results--all for an answer that a more experienced lawyer could have found in 10 minutes.

From his Times Square office overlooking Manhattan, Michael Hess '65 surveyed his 38-year career from public to private law--and back again. A native New Yorker, he is now blending his experience in both areas as senior managing director at Giuliani Partners, a crisis management firm hatched in 2002 after former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's eight-year tenure.

Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk recently testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission as it considers whether to adopt a rule proposal to permit shareholders to place candidates on the company ballot in certain situations.