Less than 40 years ago, the goals for a company’s senior management and its board of directors were relatively simple. Decisions were evaluated under the basic premises of doing what is best for the company’s profitability and maximizing shareholder value.
But 40 years ago class action and derivative suits were relatively rare, as were corporate investigations by the government — and no one was concerned about Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) compliance, Sarbanes-Oxley certifications, or Dodd-Frank whistle-blowers — quite simply because the laws did not yet exist.
