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CalPERS And CalSTRS: Moving Beyond ‘Male, Pale, Stale’

Publication Date: September 17, 2009
Source: Capitol Weekly
Author:

The conference, "Diversity on Corporate Boards: When Difference Makes a Difference," is highlighted in this article in Capitol Weekly. The event was sponsered by CalPERS, CalSTRS, Stanford Law School, and The Rock Center for Corporate Governance. Professor Joseph Grundfest, Professor Deborah Rhode and Amanda Packel participated in the conference and are quoted in the article:

California’s two big public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, are taking steps to break up the old-boy club at the top of corporations, pushing for more women and minority directors on boards some say tend to be “male, pale and stale.”

For several decades the pension funds, sometimes working with other institutional investors, have used their clout as major shareholders to push for reforms in corporate “governance,” usually with the broad goal of increasing the value of their holdings.

CalPERS famously screens hundreds of companies before placing five on its annual “focus list” targeted for management improvement, producing on average increased performance, that some studies have called the “CalPERS effect.”

...

The conference, “Diversity on Corporate Boards: When Difference Makes a Difference,” was sponsored by CalPERS, CalSTRS, Stanford Law School and The Rock Center for Corporate Governance.

...

A paper done for the conference by Deborah Rhode and Amanda Packel, both of the Stanford Center for the Legal Profession, looked at the “cottage industry” of studies done on corporate board diversity by dozens of researchers.

“In sum, the empirical research on the effect of board diversity on firm performance is inconclusive, as the results are highly dependent on methodology,” said the Rhode-Packel paper.

The moderator of the final panel, Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford law and business professor, warned against emphasizing inconclusive statistics about improved financial performance to make the case for gender and minority board diversity.

“There is other literature out there suggesting that other forms of diversification, such as adding financial experts, are more likely to lead to a stock price return,” he said.

Grundfest said gender and minority diversity on boards should be pursued for a number of reasons — among them reflecting the workforce, a broader range of viewpoints and a better chance of understanding consumers, markets and suppliers.

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More News from Stanford Center on the Legal Profession

Overview

The Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, founded in 2008, supports research, teaching, programs and public policy initiatives on crucial issues facing the bar. Building on the legacy of its predecessor, the Keck Center on Legal Ethics and the Legal Profession, the Center focuses on issues of professional responsibility and the structure of legal practice. Central concerns include how to enhance access to justice, sustain ethical values, improve bar regulatory structures, and effectively respond to the changing dynamics of legal workplaces.

In support of that mission, the Center promotes research by Stanford professors, students, and post-graduate fellows, as well as collaborative projects with other institutions. It also encourages new courses and joint teaching, and provides innovative materials and web-based resources for curricular integration of issues related to the legal profession. In collaboration with other institutions at Stanford and leading universities, the Center offers lectures, panels, workshops, conferences, and continuing education programs. Through such efforts, the Center seeks to connect theory with practice and advance policies that will address the challenges of a rapidly changing legal profession.

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Fellowship

The Center on the Legal Profession is currently not accepting fellowship applications. Please check back in 2010 for updates.

The Center

The Center on the Legal Profession, directed by Professor Deborah L. Rhode, supports research, teaching, programs, and public policy initiatives on crucial issues facing the bar. The Center focuses on issues of professional responsibility and the structure of legal practice. Central concerns include how to enhance access to justice, sustain ethical values, improve bar regulatory structures, and effectively respond to the changing dynamics of legal workplaces. Upcoming Center events include The Roadmap to Justice Project, a national effort to draw leaders in the field to develop an agenda for expanding access to legal services for low- and middle-income individuals, and the International Legal Ethics Conference in 2010.

The Fellowship

The Center on the Legal Profession Fellowship is a full-time, one-year residential fellowship beginning in June 2009. It is designed to offer scholars interested in topics of professional responsibility and the structure of legal practice an opportunity to conduct research and participate in law school events. Fellows are encouraged to attend weekly faculty lunch seminars and participate in activities with the growing number of law school fellows, pursue a scholarly project, and assist with a course on the legal profession. Fellows will be provided with office space, a stipend of $50,000, and a generous benefits package. Applicants must have a JD or a PhD in a relevant area. The Center particularly welcomes applications from individuals interested in pursuing careers in legal academia.

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Faculty

Deborah L. Rhode
Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law
650 723.0319

Program Contacts

Deborah L. Rhode
Director (E.W. McFarland Professor of Law)
650 723.0319

Deborah L. Rhode is the former president of the Association of American Law Schools, the former chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, the former founding director of Stanford's Center on Ethics, and the former director of Stanford’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She also served as senior counsel to the Minority members of the Judiciary Committee, the United States House of Representatives, on presidential impeachment issues during the Clinton administration. She is the most frequently cited scholar on legal ethics. She has received the American Bar Association’s Michael Franck award for contributions to the field of professional responsibility, the American Bar Foundation’s W. M. Keck Foundation Award for distinguished scholarship on legal ethics, and the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award for her work on expanding public service opportunities in law schools.

Amanda K. Packel
Associate Director
650 736.9770

As the Associate Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, Amanda K. Packel coordinates all aspects of the Center's activities, including developing the direction and goals for the Center and overseeing operations, publications, programs, research, and other inter-disciplinary activities. She joined Stanford Law School in 2008 after five years of practicing white collar criminal defense and conducting corporate investigations as an associate at Covington & Burling and at Orrick. Packel has also worked in a research capacity at the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Northern California and in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. She received her B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law in 2001, where she was an Articles Editor of the California Law Review. After graduating from law school, Packel served as a law clerk to Judge Marsha S. Berzon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Dena Evans
Project Coordinator

As Project Coordinator for the Center on the Legal Profession, Dena Evans handles the planning and public relations for Center events and ongoing initiatives. Most recently, she served in a similar capacity for the Stanford Center on Ethics. Evans is a 1996 Stanford graduate in American Studies, and holds an MA in Secondary Education from the Stanford Teacher Education Program. Evans spent six years as on the cross country / track & field coaching staff at Stanford, where she earned 2003 NCAA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year and 2004 USTCA Assistant Track Coach of the Year honors.

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International Legal Ethics Conference IV: “The Legal Profession in Times of Turbulence”
July 15, 2010 from 7:00 am - 8:00 am

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September 2009

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Press Releases

  • American Academy Announces 2009 Class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members: New Members include Stanford Law Faculty
    April 20, 2009
    Related: Deborah L. Rhode, Deborah R. Hensler, Stanford Center on the Legal Profession
  • Stanford Law School Launches the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession
    January 29, 2009
    Related: Deborah L. Rhode, Larry Kramer, Stanford Center on the Legal Profession

    • Contact Information

    Stanford Center on the Legal Profession
    Stanford Law School Room 342
    Crown Quadrangle
    559 Nathan Abbott Way
    Stanford, CA 94305-8610
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