The Ira M. Millstein Memorial Conference brings together insights from the legal academy, practitioner community, and government on relevant issues in corporate governance and sustainability.
2026 Conference
The most recent session of the conference convened speakers from academia, the judiciary, law, and finance to consider emerging issues in the governance of private and public companies. The program featured presentations of new academic research and a moderated panel on topics such as private equity industry trends and policy recommendations, private ordering in corporate law, and the evolving shareholder franchise. In addition, the program included a keynote by Yale Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, author of Trump's Ten Commandments, offering advice to corporate boards on how to navigate this era.
Find more information here.
2025 Conference
Private and public developments in the finance and governance of large public corporations have produced a level of change and uncertainty that rivals the hostile takeover wave of the 1980s. Some of this new environment is the result of capital market evolution that has gained force over time, as reflected in the growing role of private equity in the finance and governance of public companies and the successful insistence by controllers of major changes in Delaware corporate law. Some of the new environment flows from an abrupt change in the socio-political environment, which has changed the operating and risk parameters of asset managers. This session of the conference brought together academics from law and business as well as legal practitioners to give us a clear idea of the present and to discuss the possible futures.
Find recordings of the conference here.
2024 Conference
The inaugural session of the conference, convened in partnership with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Broadridge, occurred on June 24, 2024 and featured a keynote conversation with then-Director of the SEC Division of Corporation Finance Erik Gerding, moderated by Columbia Law Professor Eric Talley. Other topics of conversation included a comparison of ESG-related legislation and regulation in the U.S. and E.U., the ESG landscape in the U.S., and pass-through voting and ESG.
For recordings of the conference, see:
- Session One: ESG Legislation and Regulation: E.U. vs. U.S.
- Session Two: Conversation with Erik Gerding
- Session Three: ESG Landscape and Recent Developments in the U.S.
- Session Four: Pass-Through Voting and ESG