The Talent
September 5, 2008 7:24 PM
Canadian Lawyer To Lead Key ABA Panel
Posted by Tosin Sulaiman
Canadian lawyer Carol Hansell has become the first non-American to head the American Bar Association’s corporate governance committee.
Hansell, a corporate-governance expert and senior partner with Toronto firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, said her appointment reflected the ABA's increasingly international reach and the emergence of governance as a global issue.
“The fact of my being non-American ceased to be an issue because of the international focus on governance,” she says. “It’s not critical to be an American lawyer in the area of governance.”
The way in which companies are governed needs to be more broadly discussed in an international context.
“American companies have got shareholders around the world,” says Hansell, whose published work includes the book What Directors Need to Know: Corporate Governance. “Those shareholders may have expectations or priorities that are different from what you would have from American shareholders, so the interface between investors and companies is no longer confined within national boundaries.”
With more than 2,000 members, the corporate governance committee is the second-largest panel in the ABA’s Section of Business Law.
Hansell, who has worked with the ABA since 2000, was appointed by Karl Ege, the head of the section, on the recommendation of Margaret Foran, the committee's previous chair.
"Carol is one of the best corporate lawyers in North America," says Foran, executive vice president and general counsel at Sara Lee. "She is probably one of the most qualified people to take over the committee. I don't think we were specifically looking for someone outside the U.S. We were looking for the best person and it's a global world."
Hansell began her three-year term at the close of the group's 2008 Annual Meeting in New York City last month. She said she will remain at Davies, where she has been at the firm for more than 20 years.
Under her leadership, Hansell expects the committee to examine governance issues in the context of the credit crisis. She has already appointed a task force--headed by Holly Gregory, a leading corporate governance practitioner and partner at Weil, Gotshal--to study the changing relationship between boards and shareholders.
In the post-Enron era, Hansell says, governance isn't about regulatory change.
“A lot of the governance changes now," she says, "are coming through institutional investors and through public companies themselves who are seeking to establish better governance practices in order to achieve better decision-making.”
Hansell will also serve as co-chair of the sub-committee on international development and as special Canadian advisor to the committee on corporate laws.
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