DAY 04: TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2025
9:30 AM – 12:00PM | 1.0 Hour Ethics CLE
Corporate Governance and Ethics: Crucial for In-House Leadership
Hemang Desai, Distinguished Professor and Accounting Dept. Chair SMU
In-house counsel understand the essential role ethics plays in business, especially as it pertains to corporate governance and financial reporting. This session will address multiple critical topics including in-house leadership’s responsibility over financial reporting, corporate ethics, governance and control failures and their implications. The discussion will center around two real case situations. We will examine the above issues with a critical lens discussing the roles (or failure) of the leadership team, the board, auditors, analysts and institutional investors and how in-house leadership can help steer positive outcomes.
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM | 2.5 Hours CLE
Value-Based Management: Providing Legal Guidance Based on Various Business Valuation Measures
Greg Sommers, Professor of Practice, SMU
In many circumstances, in-house legal advice needs to take into consideration the company’s various business valuations. Business valuations include diverse forms of value measurements intended to both understand a company’s position and maximize the health and well-being of the organization. These may include historical value, exit value, entry value, fair value, economic value, shareholder value, customer value, supplier value, and stakeholder value. Measurements of these various forms of value take many forms – from economic models to present value to estimates. This discussion will lead in-house counsel through various business valuations and give you a hands-on approach on how to use these valuations in legal decision-making that focuses on the long-term success and prosperity of the company.
