Stephen Bainbridge: "The Profit Motive: Defending Shareholder Value Maximization."

Welcome to the Boardroom Governance Podcast. I’m your host, Evan Epstein. In this episode, I talk with Stephen Bainbridge, the William D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Professor Bainbridge is a prolific scholar, whose work covers a variety of subjects, but with a strong emphasis on the law and economics of public corporations. He has written over 100 law review articles and 20 books, including seven in multiple editions. In this podcast, we talk about his latest book, called “The Profit Motive: Defending Shareholder Value Maximization” where he addresses questions of corporate purpose using historical, legal, and economic perspectives. The book offers context for the current debates on corporate purpose, ESG and argues that shareholder value maximization is not only required by law, but what the law ought to require. We also discuss other corporate governance topics, including the SVB collapse and the ongoing financial crisis, the McDonald’s case and the expansion of Caremark duties for directors and officers. We also talk about public benefit corporations, the rise of compliance in the corporate context and pass-through voting by large asset managers. If you like this show, please consider subscribing, leaving a review or sharing this podcast on social media. You can find all the show notes on the website boardroom-governance.com and please feel free to subscribe to the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at evanepstein.substack.com