Hiring and Firing…
June 1, 2006 | Filed Under Law Firm Trends, Governance, In the News
… or the yin and yang of the legal job market.
On the positive side, Robert Half Legal (what’s the other half?) reports that attorney hiring is on the upswing. Particular strength is seen in the areas of corporate governance/ethics and litigation. These may be two sides of the same coin: you hire litigators when governance and ethics go off the rails.
On the firing side, law.com covers the news that McAfee Associates allegedly terminated its GC over actions related to stock options. My favorite legal website also offers an update regarding concerns related the departure of BearingPoint’s GC earlier this year.
It’s never easy to find a good legal job, and certainly harder to do so when you are no longer comfortably ensconced…
CEO Radar: Corporate Governance
May 15, 2006 | Filed Under Governance
Incoming…
According to a survey by AON Australia, corporate governance is the leading risk concern for Aussie executives. This is up from issue #9 in the last survey, three years ago. Legal risk, #1 in the prior survey, is now #5.
Here’s some helpful corporate governance links.
From an AON representative:
“We are also witnessing a recurring theme – that of risk culture. Whether risk management responsibilities are centralised or decentralised, organisations have identified the need to reinforce risk frameworks and systems through the right risk culture and behaviors…”
The right risk culture. Something to ponder as we await closing arguments in the Enron case.
The GC and “Other Business”
May 8, 2006 | Filed Under Governance, In the News
Sometimes you have to watch an agenda for what’s not there.
The Montgomery Advertiser reports that last Friday Alabama State University general counsel Fred Gray Sr. was fired at a meeting of the university’s board of trustees.
The termination of outside GC Gray was apparently not on the agenda. Mr. Gray is a prominent civil rights attorney who represented Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He has also been recognized by the ABA with the Thurgood Marshall Award.
Mr. Gray is senior partner with the law firm of Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray & Nathanson.
You assume that this sort of thing could have been handled better. According to the report:
The move to select a new general counsel was not on the agenda. Trustee Marvin Wiggins made a recommendation out of the blue to change university counsel. Gray stood up to ask why Wiggins made the request.
“There was a motion on the floor to terminate Mr. Gray, which spurned a little banter about procedure,” said Bell, who did not know who cast the dissenting votes. “There was a bit more banter about procedure, but both motions passed.”
Gray spoke briefly with board Chairman Elton Dean after the vote and then walked out of the board room.
As GC, you have one client. That’s great most of the time.
But you really have to watch that client.
Corporate Governance and The Big Picture
April 12, 2006 | Filed Under Compliance, Governance
It’s like the wayward uncle who just won’t stay away.
Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal has a perceptive take ($) (temp link) on emerging standards of corporate governance. Memo to company executives: this is one trend that isn’t going away.
Mr. Murray notes a recent study by Institutional Shareholder Services that found that stakeholders like pension and mutual funds have increasing expectations for corporate governance performance at companies in which they invest.
Here’s one example:
Is all this attention to corporate governance good for business? Many corporate executives I talk with worry about the creation of a culture of compliance in their companies. Too much executive time and attention, they fear, is spent on defensive matters like governance, accounting and complying with regulations, leaving too little time and attention on the company’s growth.
But big investors clearly believe attention to governance increases the value of their investments. Fifty-nine percent said monitoring corporate governance of companies they invest in enhances investor returns.
As more institutional investors look globally for attractive returns, corporate governance will take on an increasingly international tone. Metrics will be developed to allow sophisticated investors to keep score of best practices.
And U.S. executives who remain too focused on legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley may be looking through the wrong end of the governance telescope.
Old Men’s Club?
March 13, 2006 | Filed Under Governance, In the News
Another slice of board diversity?
The New York Times reported over the weekend that a fertile source for board members of Morgan Stanley turns out to be CEO John Mack’s private golf club:
Two of the first directors named to the firm’s board last summer are members of Mr. Mack’s own club, the Golf Club of Purchase in Westchester County, as are two of his recent appointees to the investment bank’s management committee.
I should not be surprised–perhaps it’s just a coincidence. But then you read something like this:
“A C.E.O. wants a guy with shared experience and values, a guy, say, who gives him putts within three feet,” said Peter J. Solomon, an avid golfer who runs his own investment bank, referring to the practice of letting a fellow golfer finish a hole without a last short putt. “So many C.E.O.’s are isolated in their own boardrooms. They need to have people with whom they can discuss personal and confidential matters.”
A guy. Here’s the Morgan Stanley board roster. According to the Times, Messrs. Sexton and Bostock are Mr. Mack’s golfing pals. And the lone female member: Dr. Laura (as in D’Andrea Tyson, Dean of the London Business School).
I think a better place for old-line firms to find new-idea board talent may be a night club rather than a golf club. What could the board of Morgan Stanley learn from a young female entrepreneur from China or India? Probably a hell of a lot more about where markets and business are headed than from someone who walks around the golf links looking like this:
Board diversity is a long-running goal of many forward-thinking companies. A major focus has been to increase representation of women and minorities.
At some point will boards also consider members for recent, relevant experience? Not just for age (that’s a no-no), but for their mastery in new markets that are yielding much of the top-line growth for many companies. Many current board members have executive experience that pre-dated the Internet, mass adoption of technology, and the explosion of international markets.
Instead of more grey hair, a few boards could perhaps use some purple hair.
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