Restoring Trust in American Business

By: Jay William Lorsch and Martin Lipton and Larry W. Sonsini and Leslie Berlowitz and Andy Zelleke

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Synopsis: Recent business scandals point to a disturbing breakdown of values in corporate America. This book responds to the crisis by examining the responsibilities of "gatekeepers"--corporate directors, regulators, auditors, lawyers, investment bankers, and business journalists--who stand between corporate misconduct and the public. The essays, by prominent scholars and practitioners, argue that market pressures have made gatekeepers too focused on financial self-interest and too heedless of the public good to live up to society's legitimate expectations. A key part of the book is a set of recommendations for enhancing gatekeeper professionalism. These range from specific steps for improving boards of directors to a call for the investment banking community to establish a uniform code of conduct and articulate its obligations to the investing public. This book grew out of the Corporate Responsibility Project undertaken by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The contributors come from institutions ranging from Wall Street and the nation's leading law and business schools to the AFL-CIO; they include such prominent figures as John S. Reed of the New York Stock Exchange, investment banker Felix Rohatyn, corporate lawyer Martin Lipton, and media commentator and professor of journalism Geneva Overholser.