Corporate governance as a typical concern of law departments

Corporate governance issues rank high on the list of concerns law departments know they should address (See my post of Aug. 14, 2005: CEOs think general counsel should spend more time on governance; March 6, 2005: governance as a challenging area of law; July 25, 2005: legal risk and governance advice by European general counsel; May 10, 2006: Canadian law departments concerned with corporate governance; Dec. 16, 2005: Alcoa’s general counsel devotes about 15% of his time to corporate governance; and Nov. 8, 2007: Enterprise Risk Management and corporate governance.).

The reporting structure of governance group is up for grabs (See my post of Feb. 17, 2007: frequency of corporate governance positions; Feb. 18, 2007: Chief Governance Officers; and Feb. 10, 2005: law departments and Chief Governance Officers; and Sept. 10, 2005: Motorola Chief Governance Officer.).

Various organizations rate companies on the quality of their corporate governance (See my post of Dec. 4, 2005: governance ratings organizations; July 5, 2006 # 2: governance rating groups; July 5, 2006: assessment groups; and Oct. 1, 2006: law department collects governance ratings.).

Sources of guidance exist on corporate governance practices (See my post of Oct. 29, 2006: Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals; May 13, 2007: SCS&GP; March 26, 2008: consultants on corporate governance; and Dec. 12, 2005: metrics about spending on governance.).