Practice Area Insights — Corporate Governance and Inclusive Leadership
As ideas about corporate purpose evolve, how has that affected corporations’ implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion measures? What can be learned from successes and failures of corporate inclusivity in leadership? Professor Jennifer S. Fan dives into these questions in this video, filmed at the ABA Business Law Section’s 2023 Hybrid Spring Meeting. In her presentation to the Academic Subcommittee of the Section’s Mergers & Acquisitions Committee, Professor Fan shares keen insights into the state of diversity in leadership of public and private companies, how corporate purpose and “publicness” govern companies’ actions in the inclusivity context, and policy considerations for corporate DEI action. A lively Q&A with meeting participants adds to the discussion.
For further reading on these topics, see Professor Fan’s blog posts discussing two of her articles referenced in the video: “Startup Biases” and “Woke Capital Revisited.”
Read more about the video’s featured speaker and moderator below:
Jennifer S. Fan, University of Washington School of Law; incoming, LMU Loyola Law School
Professor Jennifer S. Fan will join LMU Loyola Law School as the inaugural Therese Maynard Chair in Business Law, with an affiliate appointment at the LMU College of Business Administration, in spring 2024.
Professor Fan joined the University of Washington School of Law in 2010. Professor Fan is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, faculty director of the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic and faculty advisor for the Law, Business, and Entrepreneurship track. In addition to the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, she teaches business organizations. Professor Fan is the 2019 recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year Award given by the student body.
Professor Fan earned her A.B. in Political Science, with distinction, from Stanford University. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a senior associate in the corporate securities group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Professor Fan was also the inaugural director of the Pro Bono Program of the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School. Previously, she served as the Vice President and Director of Legal Affairs of the Asian Pacific Fund, a community foundation serving the Asian American community in the Bay Area.
Professor Fan’s research explores questions of corporate law in the context of entrepreneurship and innovation, with a focus on corporate governance. She is admitted to practice in California, New York and Washington.
Moderator: Glenn D. West, Retired Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
Glenn represented private equity firms in acquiring and making investments in public and private companies for most of his career. Glenn is also a thought leader in private equity and M&A legal issues. Glenn authors frequent blog posts on private on M&A-related issues for Weil’s Global Private Equity Watch. His posts are available at https://privateequity.weil.com/category/glenn-west-musings/.
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