The collapse of the energy company Enron will be explored in a panel discussion among scholars and business professionals on Friday, Feb. 15, at the Law School.
The discussion, titled "The Enron Situation: A View from the Professions," is sponsored by the Law School's Center for the Study of Corporate Law. It will take place 2-4 p.m. in Rm. 120 of the Sterling Law Buildings, 127 Wall St. The public is invited to attend the free event.
Panelists will explore some of the questions raised by U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman LAW '67 when he chaired a Jan. 24 hearing of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs exploring the company's collapse. Among these are: How was Enron allowed to hide its debts and losses and shady accounting from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight? Could the Labor Department have intervened when Enron barred its employees from selling company stock in 401(k) plans and blocked them from salvaging what was left of their retirement nest eggs? Could the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have exercised more oversight to rein in abuses that might have contributed to Enron's collapse? Are the auditors too beholden to management to protect the shareholders' interests?
Alan Schwartz, Sterling Professor of Law and the director of the Center for the Study of Corporate Law, will be the moderator of the panel. Says Professor Schwartz, "This is one of the most important -- and for some, devastating -- corporate events in recent history. We are bringing together a group of prominent academics and professionals to try to shed some light on the questions and issues brought about by the collapse of Enron."
Panelists represent a wide range of academic and practical experience in business, accounting, pension management and corporate governance. They include:
William T. Allen, professor of law and clinical professor of business at New York University (NYU), where he is also the director of the NYU Center for Law and Business. Allen came to NYU in 1997 following 12 years as chancellor of the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, widely considered the leading trial court in the United States for questions of business and corporation law. He is also founding chair of the Independence Standards Board, a self-regulatory body established through an agreement between the SEC and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Rick Antle, senior associate dean and professor of accounting at the Yale School of Management. Antle is an expert in matters regarding auditor independence, the reporting of business income, the compensation of corporate executives, the incentives of auditors and the structure of certified public accounting firms. He has been a consultant to companies, financial and accounting firms, and the government. He is the co-author of the textbook "Financial Accounting" and he serves on the editorial boards of such journals as The Review of Accounting Studies and the Journal of Business, Finance & Accounting.
Richard Ippolito, professor of law at George Mason University, and one of the country's most prominent and widely published pension economists. A former chief economist of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, his 1998 book "Pension Plans and Employee Performance: Evidence, Analysis, and Policy" shows how pension plans can assist employers in bringing their incentives, and those of their employees, into alignment, and offers a blueprint for revising the Social Security plan with work incentives that would strengthen the system's financial condition.
Eugene A. Ludwig LAW '73, managing partner of Promontory Financial Group, a Washington, D.C.-based financial consultancy that provides strategic planning, wealth management, merchant banking and restructuring services to financial institutions. Ludwig was formerly U.S. comptroller of the currency (1993-1998) and vice chair of Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank (1998-2000). He has been the chair of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a member of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.
Roberta Romano LAW '80, the Allen Duffy/Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale, is an expert in corporate law and finance, financial market regulation and corporate governance. The founding director of the Center for the Study of Corporate Law, Romano has written extensively on takeover regulation, state competition for corporate charters, shareholder litigation, public pension funds and the regulation of derivative securities.
Michael Shepherd, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of The Bank of New York Company, Inc. Over the course of his career, Shepherd has also been a lawyer in private practice and government service. He was senior deputy comptroller of the currency (1987-1991), former associate counsel to the president of the United States (1986-1987) and a former deputy assistant attorney general (1984-1986).
For more information on the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law, visit its website at www.yale.edu/law/ccl/.
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