Publications

spring 2006
Article

All's Fair in Love, War, & Bankruptcy: Corporate Governance Implications of CEO Turnover in Financial Distress

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

Prior discussions of management turnover during financial distress have examined bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms as distinct groupings with little overlap. Separately investigating rates of turnover in-bankruptcy and out-of-bankruptcy, without a direct comparison... View Details

Keywords: CEO Turnover; Bankruptcy; Restructuring; Shadow Of Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Financing and Loans; Corporate Governance; Finance; Theory; Markets; United States

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Research Summary

Islamic Financing Practices

By: Samuel L. Hayes

Samuel L. Hayes III is examining (with faculty of Harvard University's Law School and Center for Middle Eastern Studies) Islamic banking and investment practices. Because the Koran prohibits the payment of fixed interest and guarantees on funds invested either with... View Details

28 Feb 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Patent Trolls and Small-Business Employment

Keywords: by Ian Appel, Joan Farre-Mensa, and Elena Simintzi

June 2010 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Managing the Client Portfolio

By: Nitin Nohria and Ashish Nanda

The German country managing partner of a global law firm must decide how to respond to a corporate mandate to restructure its client portfolio. The case enables a discussion of different types of clients in a global professional service firm in terms of relative... View Details

Keywords: Attorney and Client Relationships; Management Style; Corporate Governance; Business Subsidiaries; Business Headquarters; Conflict and Resolution

Research Summary

Corporate Restructuring and Business Insolvency: Economic Impact and Best Practices

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Stuart C. Gilson is studying how severe financial distress impacts corporate policies and economic resource allocation. He is also studying how managers can best respond to financial distress in order to preserve and grow value. He is undertaking this research... View Details

Research Summary

Political Economy and Effects of Gun Policy

In two projects with Mike Luca and Deepak Malhotra, I examine the causes and consequences of gun policy.

The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy

There have been dozens of high-profile mass shootings in... View Details

Keywords: Gun Policy; Firearms; Political Economy; United States

October 2010
Case

DLA Piper and Christie's International (A)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Dilyana Karadzhova

International law firm DLA Piper is selected as major legal services provider of renowned art business Christie's International. Nine months after the start of relationship, the client calls Nigel Knowles, DLA Piper joint CEO and Managing Partner, with a litany of... View Details

Keywords: Attorney and Client Relationships; Law; Practice; Reputation; Ethics; Risk and Uncertainty; Legal Services Industry

Research Summary

Overview

Professor Sawyer’s research focuses on U.S. political economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, concentrating on the development of competition policy and the administrative state. While the conventional history of U.S. competition policy portrays the... View Details

2016
Working Paper

Executive Compensation and Environmental Harm

By: Dylan Minor

We explore the relationship between managerial incentives and environmental harm. We find that high-powered executive compensation packages can increase the odds of environmental law breaking by 40%–60% and the magnitude of environmental harm by over 100%. We document... View Details

Keywords: Misconduct; Environmental Performance; Accounting Scandal; Sustainable Finance; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Executive Compensation; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Governance

SSRN

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April 2013
Article

What Roger Fisher Got Profoundly Right: Five Enduring Lessons for Negotiators

By: James K. Sebenius

Roger Fisher, who died in 2012, enjoyed a remarkable career that modeled one way that an academic, especially in a professional school such as law or business, could make a significant, positive, and lasting difference in the world. Distinctive aspects of his career... View Details

Keywords: Bargaining; Conflict Resolution; Dealmaking; Negotiation; Personal Development and Career; Conflict and Resolution

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March 2014
Teaching Note

E-Cigarettes: Marketing Versus Public Health

By: John A. Quelch

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were heralded by some as a healthcare game changer, enabling smokers to switch to a new product which carried lower risk of cancer. However, there were concerns about the public health risk of e-cigarettes, particularly the chance... View Details

November 1995
Case

"Marketing" at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Samanta Graff

Describes the history and unique operating principles of the most successful corporate law firm in the country. Closes with a lengthy quotation by Martin Lipton, who is one of the firm's founding partners and who is described in an American Lawyer article as the "Elvis... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Reputation; Business Strategy; Legal Services Industry

July 1987 (Revised January 1993)
Background Note

Legal Restrictions on Marketing Management, Introduction

Reviews several key areas in the marketing manager's legal environment and is organized around the marketing mix variables. In the pricing section it covers price fixing, resale price maintenance, discriminatory pricing, and predatory pricing. In the distribution... View Details

Keywords: Law; Marketing

December 1995 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Corporate Purpose and Responsibility

By: Lynn S. Paine

Presents several conceptions of corporate purpose and responsibility as articulated by a variety of groups and individuals during the period 1970-95. Included are materials from the Business Roundtable, the American Law Institute, the Royal Society of Arts and... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; History; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

2014
Working Paper

Tommy Koh: Background and Major Accomplishments of the 'Great Negotiator, 2014'

By: James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green

Significant negotiation-related achievements from career of Ambassador Tommy Koh of Singapore are highlighted in brief form along with elements of his background and career. In light of these accomplishments, Koh was selected as the recipient of the 2014 Great... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; International Relations; Personal Development and Career; United States; Singapore; Baltic Countries; Southeast Asia

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August 2007 (Revised September 2008)
Case

Baker & McKenzie (A): A New Framework for Talent Management

By: Boris Groysberg and Eliot Sherman

Describes the process by which the largest law firm in the world developed a unique framework for personnel management. In 2004, John Conroy is about to take the reigns as the leader of Baker and McKenzie, the largest law firm in the world by employees, with offices in... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Framework; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Retention; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Adoption; Legal Services Industry

spring 2006
Article

All's Fair in Love, War & Bankruptcy?: Corporate Governance Implications of CEO Turnover in Financial Distress

By: Ethan S Bernstein

Prior discussions of management turnover during financial distress have examined bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms as distinct groupings with little overlap. Separately investigating rates of turnover in-bankruptcy and out-of-bankruptcy, without a direct comparison... View Details

Keywords: Management Succession; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance

SSRN

May 2022
Article

When Does Product Liability Risk Chill Innovation? Evidence from Medical Implants

By: Alberto Galasso and Hong Luo

Liability laws designed to compensate for harms caused by defective products may also affect innovation. We examine this issue by exploiting a major quasi-exogenous increase in liability risk faced by U.S. suppliers of polymers used to manufacture medical implants.... View Details

Keywords: Product Liability; Innovation; Tort; Medical Devices; Vertical Foreclosure; Product; Innovation and Invention; Legal Liability; Laws and Statutes; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry