Both/And in Women’s Leadership: Advancing Gender Equity from the Classroom to the Boardroom

Past Events

September 30, 2022

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Work or family. Today or tomorrow. Service to self or others. Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. These seemingly everyday challenges women business leaders face are often presented and perceived as “either/or” scenarios.

In their newly released book, “Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems”, co-authors Marianne Lewis and Wendy Smith offer a solution to those very challenges: a reframing of those “either/or” scenarios as something completely different — and, potentially, transformative.

Join us in a webinar as Marianne Lewis, dean and professor of management in the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business and Wendy Smith, Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management in the University of Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics talk with 4 successful female leaders about how they navigate both/and solutions to enable more female leadership and diversity in governance.

Susan Alexander – Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow, Former CHRO at Sotheby’s
Liza Bartle – Senior Council for Board of Manufacturers; Delaware Manufacturing Association
Ashlee Carlisle –Data and Platforms Account Executive, Google
Veta Richardson – President, CEO, Association of Corporate Counsel

“Both/And Thinking” has received attention from national media outlets such as Newsweek, MarketWatch and Fast Company. It has been named to The Next Big Idea Club’s list of “most promising, must-read nonfiction titles” released in August 2022. Adam Grant, a New York Times bestselling author and host of the TED podcast “WorkLife,” put “Both/And Thinking” on his list of “The 10 New Books to Enrich Your Thinking.”

Co-Sponsored by the University of Delaware’s Lerner College of Business and Economics Women’s Leadership Initiative, Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and the University of Cincinnati Lindner School of Business

SPACs: Navigating Challenges in an Evolving Market

Past Events

Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 12:00 PM to 1:15 PM @Webinar/Virtual : 

Recording of Webinar

A discussion of current trends in a fast-changing SPAC market and recent developments impacting SPACs and their targets, including the SEC’s proposed new rules regarding SPAC transactions and litigation involving SPACs and companies that have gone public through SPAC transactions. The panel discussed issues and risks that management teams, boards of directors, advisors, and investors should consider in connection with evaluating and pursuing transactions involving SPACs.  The panelists are:

  • The Honorable Lori Will, Vice Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery
  • Tammy Mercer, Chair, Corporate Litigation and Counseling Group and Partner, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP
  • Lori Zyskowski, Partner and Co-Chair of the Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
  • Evan D’Amico, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Moderator)

Bios

Materials

Delaware Law Update

Past Events

Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM

@Clayton Hall, University of Delaware : 

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This program will consist of two roundtables that will focus on recent developments and emerging issues in Delaware law. 

“Board Oversight Liability Three Years After Marchand –What Has Changed? What Still May Change?”

In the three years following the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Marchand v. Barnhill, 212 A.3d 805 (2019), the Delaware Court of Chancery has considered several motions to dismiss in high-profile cases alleging that a public company board of directors had failed to exercise oversight duties, dismissing some cases and allowing other cases to go forward.   Do these decisions represent an expansion of oversight liability and a change in a director’s standard of conduct, a shift in pleading standards, or both?  Relatedly, what are stockholder plaintiffs focusing on in bringing oversight claims and what are board counselors advising directors about the board’s path forward following an unsuccessful motion to dismiss? The roundtable participants are:

  • Rolin Bissell, a Partner at Young, Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP (Moderator)
  • Joel Friedlander, Partner, Friedlander & Gorris, P.A.
  • Meredith Kotler, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
  • Blake Rohrbacher, Director, Richards Layton & Finger


Materials:

“Recent Delaware Perspectives on Special Committees and  SPACs”

This panel will discuss two separate, but potentially related topics.  First, special committees:  the Delaware Court of Chancery continues to provide key guidance on the effective use of special committees, including in the context of “controller” transactions. Recent cases not only explore the attributes of a well-functioning committee process (and implications for the applicable standard of judicial review), but provide further evolving insight into what may constitute a “controller” under Delaware law.  Second, SPACs:  in a highly anticipated opinion, the Court of Chancery recently declined to dismiss In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation, providing a window into how the Court might assess future litigation over de-SPACing transactions.  The opinion has given rise to many “take-aways” and questions, including what role, if any, special committees might play going forward in order to mitigate risk in this new area of litigation.  The roundtable participants are:

  • Jennifer Voss, a Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Moderator)
  • A. Thompson Bayliss – Abrams & Bayliss LLP
  • Mark Lebovitch, Partner, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP
  • Patricia Vella, Partner, Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP


Materials:

UDaily Article

The Chancellors: Past and Present

The Chancellors: Past and Present

Past Events

Date-Time: Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM

Location: Clayton Hall, University of Delaware

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the Weinberg Center will be hosting “The Chancellors: Past and Present,” which will feature the following current and former Chancellors from the Delaware Court of Chancery, as the Weinberg Center’s 2022 John L Weinberg Distinguished Speaker:

  • The Honorable Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery
  • The Honorable Andre G. Bouchard, former Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery; Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
  • The Honorable William B. Chandler, III, former Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery; Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati;
  • The Honorable Leo E. Strine, Jr., former Chancellor, Delaware Court of Chancery; former Chief Justice, Delaware Supreme Court; and Of Counsel, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
  • Gregory P. Williams, Director, Richards, Layton & Finger, Moderator

Read the full UDaily Article

University of Delaware Weinberg Center/ECGI Corporate Governance Symposium

Past Events

Friday, March 11, 2022, 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM @Virtual : 

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Agenda

Co-sponsored with the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

In collaboration with the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and the Department of Finance at the Lerner College of Business & Economics, at the University of Delaware, will host its 2022 Annual Corporate Governance Symposium.

Lunch Presentation: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET

Between the morning and afternoon paper presentation sessions, there will be a presentation by BlackRock on proxy voting choices.

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Papers:

The following are the eight papers that have been selected for presentation at the 2022 Symposium:

Morning Session: Watch Video

  • Is History Repeating Itself? The (Un)predictable Past of ESG Ratings Florian Berg (MIT), Kornelia Fabisik* (Frankfurt), and Zacharias Sautner (Frankfurt) 
    Discussant:  Youngjun Dragon Tang (University of Hong Kong)
  • Read the Paper
  • ESG Lending Sehoon Kim (Florida), Nitish Kumar* (Florida), Jongsub Lee (Seoul National), and Junho Oh (Hong Kong Polytechnic
    Discussant: Lubo Litov (Univeristy of Oklahoma)
    Read the Paper
  • Climate Risk Disclosure and Institutional Investors Emirhan Ilhan* (Frankfurt), Philipp Krueger (Geneva), Zacharias Sautner (Frankfurt), and Laura T. Starks (Texas)
    Discussant:  Henri Servaes (London Business School)
    Read the Paper
  • Greenhouse Gas Disclosure and Emissions Benchmarking Sorabh Tomar* (Southern Methodist)
    Discussant:  Matthew Gustafson (Penn State)
    Read the Paper

Afternoon Session:

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  • Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement Aiyesha Dey (Harvard), Austin Starkweather (South Carolina), and Joshua T. White* (Vanderbilt)
    Discussant:  Nadya Malenko (University of Michigan)
    Read the Paper
  • Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance Benjamin Bennett (Tulane), Isil Erel (Ohio State), Léa Stern* (U. Washington), Zexi Wang (Lancaster)
    Discussant:  Daniel Ferreira (London School of Economics)
    Read the Paper
  • Trading Ahead of Barbarians’ Arrival at the Gate: Insider Trading on Non-Inside Information Georgy Chabakauri (LSE), Vyacheslav Fos* (Boston College), Wei Jiang (Columbia)
    Discussant:  Umit Gurun (University of Texas at Dallas)
    Read the Paper
  • Bargaining with Private Equity: Implications for Hospital Prices and Patient Welfare Tong Liu* (Wharton) 
    Discussant:  Alon Brav (Duke)
    Read the Paper

* Presenting author

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Paper Award competition, which seeks to highlight innovative research and includes an award of US$10,000:

  • Is History Repeating Itself? The (Un)predictable Past of ESG RatingsFlorian Berg (MIT), Kornelia Fabisik (Frankfurt), and Zacharias Sautner (Frankfurt)
  • Bargaining with Private Equity: Implications for Hospital Prices and Patient Welfare Tong Liu (Wharton)

Reference Materials for Luncheon Presentation

1.  Blackrock Investment Stewardship 

2. “BlackRock to Permit Some Clients to Vote,” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, October 25, 2021 

3. “BlackRock’s Move to Expand Proxy Voting Choice Creates Unknowns,” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, November 20, 2021 

4.  ISS Voting Policies 2022 

5. “ISS Launches Special Interest Proxy Advisory Guidelines,” by Baker Hostetler.  JDsupra, April 6, 2020

Call for Papers

Submission Fee Form

UDaily – John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Paper Awards

ESG: Practical Advice for Boards Today

Past Events

Thursday, March 3, 2022, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

@Clayton Hall, University of Delaware : 

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This three-hour interactive program will address how boards can navigate the evolving and sometimes challenging ESG landscape.  Led by Sabastian V. Niles from Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and John W. White from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the program will include case studies to guide discussion of challenging issues that may be encountered, including investor and stakeholder pressure, fiduciary duties, SEC scrutiny, integrating ESG into strategy and operations, regulatory reporting requirements, evolving private ordering of ESG reporting, internal control procedures related to ESG metrics and targets, shareholder proposals, and, of course, importantly, board, board committee and management responsibilities with respect to ESG.

The program will include comments throughout by Leslie F. Seidman, independent director and chair of the audit committee at General Electric and Moody’s and former Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), as well as insights by Paul A. Beswick, Americas IFRS Leader at EY and former Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission; Michael L. Arnold, Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP; Aaron Holmes, Deputy General Counsel and Senior Managing Director at Accenture; Carmen Lu, Counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; among others.  

Bios

Reference Materials

State of Play Today

SEC Role

Getting the ESG Data Right

Board Involvement

Additional Materials