Corporate Personhood and Corporate Social Responsibility

In 2014, the five largest American corporations had revenues of $1.46 trillion, equal to the economic output of Canada. Corporations produce and sell almost everything we buy or interact with and increasingly mediate our social lives—yet the rules that govern them remain opaque and misunderstood. The debate about corporations considered as people under the law has real-world consequences for corporate governance, high-stakes corporate litigation, executive compensation, and securities regulation. What are corporations? Who runs them? And for what purpose? And how should they best be regulated? Todd Henderson, JD’98, will consider these issues in an attempt to better understand the nature of the corporation.

Event Details

2:00 p.m. Registration and networking

2:30 p.m. Presentation and discussion

3:30 p.m. Reception

$20/person

$10/recent graduate (College alumni of the past 10 years and graduate alumni of the past five years)

Free for Class of 2015 UChicago alumni

Two complimentary registrations for members of the Chicago, Harper, Phoenix, and Medical and Biological Alumni Leadership Societies

Kindly register here.

Featured Faculty

Todd Henderson, JD’98, is the Michael J. Marks Professor of Law and Mark Claster Mamolen Research Scholar at the University of Chicago. He was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review, has clerked in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, has practiced appellate litigation, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in Boston, where he specialized in counseling telecommunications and high-tech clients on business and regulatory strategy. His research interests include corporations, securities regulation, bankruptcy, law and economics, and intellectual property. To learn more, read “Replacing the Board” in the Economist and Henderson’s article on rethinking corporate boards.