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Executive Lawyers: Gatekeepers or Strategic Officers?

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  • Adair Morse
  • Wei Wang
  • Serena Wu

Abstract

Lawyers now serve as executives in 44% of corporations. Although endowed with gatekeeping responsibilities, executive lawyers face increasing pressure to use time on strategic efforts. In a lawyer fixed effects model, we quantify that lawyers are half as important as CEOs in explaining variances in compliance, monitoring, and business development. In a difference-in-differences model, we find that hiring lawyers into executive positions associates with 50% reduction in compliance breaches and 32% reduction in monitoring breaches. We then ask whether firms’ optimal contracting of lawyers into strategic activities implies less lawyer gatekeeping effort. Using a design comparing executive lawyers hired from law firms to lawyers poached from corporations, we find that lawyers hired with high compensation delta (indicative of the importance of strategic goals in compensation contracts) do less monitoring, preventing 25% fewer breaches than are typically mitigated by having an executive gatekeeper. Reassuringly, lawyers do not compromise compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Adair Morse & Wei Wang & Serena Wu, 2016. "Executive Lawyers: Gatekeepers or Strategic Officers?," NBER Working Papers 22597, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22597
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pham, Mia Hang, 2020. "In law we trust: Lawyer CEOs and stock liquidity," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. SAKO Mari & KUBO Katsuyuki, 2019. "Professionals on Corporate Boards: How do they affect the bottom line?," Discussion papers 19010, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Gordon M. Bodnar & Erasmo Giambona & John R. Graham & Campbell R. Harvey, 2019. "A View Inside Corporate Risk Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(11), pages 5001-5026, November.
    4. Mari Sako & Katsuyuki Kubo, 2018. "Professionals On Corporate Boards In Japan: How Do They Affect The Bottom Line?," Working Papers halshs-01770191, HAL.
    5. Moran, Pablo & Pandes, J. Ari, 2019. "Elite law firms in the IPO market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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