Fishman, Gershanik Lead Tulane Law’s Corporate Governance Mini-Course

Attorneys Louis Fishman, counsel to the firm, and Maureen Gershanik, a partner in Fishman Haygood’s Business Section, will serve as co-instructors of the Corporate Governance mini-course at Tulane University Law School. Offered each spring, the course began March 1 and will meet for a total of six two-hour sessions. Fishman has taught the course for the past decade, and—while she has previously served as a guest speaker—this semester will be the first in which Gershanik serves as an official co-instructor.

The course considers current events in corporate governance, but typically covers topics like shareholder activism, proxy access, and ethical dilemmas involving business clients. This semester, Gershanik will lead a session on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), which will include commentary on its origins, the problems ESG is expected to solve in the business world, and the challenges the ESG movement faces.

The course’s objective is to demonstrate to students how corporate governance fits into corporation law, how corporations make decisions, the role of the corporation lawyer in corporate governance, and the factors that leads to good (and bad) corporate decision-making. Ultimately, the goal is that students come away conversant in a variety of corporate governance topics.

Fishman Haygood attorneys regularly lend their expertise to scholarship and teaching of continuing development in the law. Fishman was a founder and has served since 1988 on the planning committee of Tulane’s Corporate Law Institute. He has held several key posts, including chairperson, of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s (LSBA) Section on Corporation and Business Law.

Gershanik also is a past chairperson and council member of the LSBA Section on Corporate and Business Law and is an appointed member of the ABA Business Law Section’s Corporate Laws Committee, which continually updates and revised the Model Business Corporation Act. She served as a panelist on “ESG Considerations in Dealmaking” at last year’s 34th Annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute and is slated to speak again in 2023.

Click here to learn more about the firm’s Corporate Governance group.