MoFo Perspectives Podcast

In this episode of MoFo Perspectives, Los Angeles Litigation Partner and co-chair of the Women’s Strategy Committee, Tritia Murata, and managing partner of MoFo’s New York office, Jamie Levitt, discuss the legal implications of recent Supreme Court decisions with NYU Law professors and legal scholars, Professors Melissa Murray and Kenji Yoshino, and author and legal correspondent at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick.

The ninth episode in this series focuses on “Responsible Innovation: Ensuring Ethics in Emerging Technologies,” with Aron Cramer, President and CEO at BSR, interviewing Paula Goldman, Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer at Salesforce, and Lokke Moerel, Senior Of Counsel, Privacy + Data Security practice and ESG Steering Committee member, at MoFo.

The eighth episode in this series focuses on the “Business Implications of the Supreme Court's Ruling on Affirmative Action” with Michael McAfee, President and CEO at PolicyLink, and Jarrid Green, Co-Director, Center for Business and Social Justice, at BSR. The discussion will be led by Mark L. Whitaker, Co-chair of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice, and Co-chair of the Diversity Strategy Committee, at MoFo.

In this episode of the Above Board podcast, Morrison Foerster partner and host Dave Lynn discusses shareholder activism with the firm's global Mergers & Acquisitions Group co-chairs, Spencer Klein and Brandon Parris. They discuss the key shareholder activism developments that boards of directors should be considering in 2023, including the latest developments with proxy contests and M&A activism, the rise of the “occasional activist,” the use of ESG considerations in advancing campaigns and the recent implications of the SEC’s universal proxy rule.

In this episode of the Diversity in Practice podcast, San Francisco Litigation partner, Stacey Sprenkel hosts a discussion with happiness coach and lawyer, Rochelle Gapere, about how to increase happiness and meaning in the workplace, cultivate a work culture that increases employee productivity and improve work-life balance.

In this episode of the Above Board podcast, Morrison Foerster partner and host Dave Lynn discusses the U.S. DOJ’s new corporate voluntary self-disclosure policy with Nate Mendell, the former Acting U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and partner in the firm’s Investigations + White Collar Defense practice, and James Koukios, co-chair of the firm’s Securities Litigation, Enforcement, and White Collar Defense group and co-head of the FCPA + Global Anti-Corruption practice. The new policy is intended to incentivize companies to voluntarily self-disclose misconduct to U.S. Attorney’s Offices and remediate misconduct by providing standardized benefits for doing so. The discussion outlines the essential components of the new voluntary self-disclosure policy and the pros and cons to be evaluated in a company’s potential decision to self-disclose.

The seventh episode in this series focuses on the “Net Zero Transition – Opportunities and Headwinds” with Aron Cramer, President and CEO, BSR, interviewing Curtis Ravenel, Senior Advisor to the Co-chairs and Vice Chair, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).

In this episode of the Above Board podcast, Morrison Foerster partner and host Dave Lynn discusses recent legal developments in human rights that are of concern to the boards of directors of public companies in the US and Europe with attorneys in the firm's Global Ethics + Compliance and FCPA + Global Anti-Corruption practices: San Francisco partner Stacey Sprenkel, London partner Gareth Rees KC, and Berlin partner Patrick Spaeth. In discussing corporate responsibility and risk related to human rights, topics for consideration include: preventing modern slavery, human trafficking, and unsafe working conditions; protecting freedom of association, free expression of faith, and personal data; and the impact of business activities on local communities and environments.

The sixth episode in this series focuses on “Embedding Impact in Mainstream Investments – Risks and Opportunities” with Suz Mac Cormac, Global Chair of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Social Enterprise + Impact Investing, and Energy practices at MoFo, interviewing Kyung-Ah Park, Managing Director, ESG Investment Management at Temasek.

Kyung-Ah will provide insights on how Temasek is harnessing ESG across investment teams and the institution to strengthen portfolio resiliency and drive long-term sustainable value creation. From integrating ESG across the investment process to ESG-related investment strategies and partnerships, Kyung-Ah will discuss how investors can embed ESG in mainstream investments and across markets to help address the global climate challenge and drive inclusive growth.

There is a growing interest in ESG-driven investments amongst Asia fund managers, with every respondent to Our Asia Funds ESG Survey 2022 stating that they take ESG criteria into account on investment decisions. However, there is a mismatch between ESG words and deeds in Asia, with many fund managers having investment policies in place that do not necessarily translate into action.

This mismatch between ESG words and deeds runs a clear risk of reputational damage, compliance failure, or value decline if fund managers invest in businesses with a weak or overstated ESG record. The responsibility of GPs to get this right for their LPs is very real, and some LPs are starting to demand more reporting on how fund managers are applying ESG in practice. A number of fund managers have already responded by instigating systematic investor reporting on ESG performance, but our survey shows that these are few and far between; there’s some way to go for others to catch up.

In this podcast, we explore what ESG expectations LPs have of their GPs on ESG, and how GPs are responding to increasing demands from their LPs.