August 16, 2004 Legal news, law news, law firm news & announcements at LAWFUEL Coudert partner Barry Metzger, a recognized authority on corporate governance, discusses the relationship and impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on the global marketplace in the newly published Global Corporate Governance Guide 2004: Best Practice in the Boardroom. Mr. Metzger, who served as consulting editor for the 2004 guide, provides insight into the global relevance of American corporate governance reforms:
“With the tidal wave of corporate governance scandals in the United States beginning in 2001, there were many who thought that the momentum for corporate governance reform outside the United States would abate, as the principal proponent of reform was humbled.”
“The principal reform legislation in the United States in response to the scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, passed Congress into law in considerable haste and was labeled even by long-standing advocates of corporate governance reform as containing many provisions which were out of step with prevalent thinking about best practices. Critics outside the United States considered Sarbanes-Oxley a rush to judgment and initially saw little in the legislation which had relevance to Europe, Asia or Latin America.”
“Yet as 2004 unfolds, these concerns for the pace of corporate governance reform globally seem unfounded. The momentum of corporate governance reform has quickened and initiatives for reform, learning from American experience, touch almost every country in which shares are publicly traded.”
The 2004 Guide includes contributions from the Securities and Exchange Commission, OECD, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation, NASDAQ, leading institutional investors and law firms.
The Japan chapter was co-authored by Mr. Metzger, Coudert associate Kym Bavcevich of the Firm’s Tokyo office and Shintaro Kuroda of Yodoyabashi & Yamagami, a firm with which Coudert Brothers is affiliated. Coudert partner Derek Bloom, along with associate Kirill Ratinikov and legal assistant Petr Baranovsky, edited and authored the 2004 Guide’s country chapter on Russia.
Copies of the 2004 Guide may be obtained upon request from Mr. Metzger at the Firm’s New York office.
