Who We Are
Columbia Law School’s Center on Corporate Governance was inaugurated on June 17, 2003 with a conference called “Roundtable on Access to the Proxy Statement.” The event brought together leading institutional investors and academics to discuss the prospects for direct shareholder nomination, through a corporation’s own proxy statement, of a limited number of “watchdog” directors.
Roundtable on Access to the Proxy Statement

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a variety of proposals to authorize some percentage of the shareholders to nominate one or more directors by means of a corporation’s own proxy statement. A rule-making petition was filed in May 2003 by the AFL-CIO requesting that the SEC amend its rules to authorize such shareholder nominations.
Panelists at the event included Prof. Coffee, Sarah Teslik, executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, and Peter Clapman, chief investment counsel of TIAA-CREF.
Our Director

John C. Coffee, Jr.
Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law
Columbia University Law School