Legal Commentary

Brown President Resigns as Goldman Director:

By Todd Zywicki

Roy Poses has the remarkable story of the resignation of Brown President Ruth Simmons as a Director of Goldman Sachs.  She took $4.2 million in stock units with her and 10,000 additional options.  Roy also has some provocative comments on the increasingly intertwined relationships between academia (especially elite academia) and Wall Street.

I?ve noticed (partly educated by Roy?s prior comments on this) the interesting phenomenon that has arisen over the the past decade or so of this relationship between academia and Wall Street.  That Wall Street bankers write big checks to buy board seats is now pretty widespread.  But concerning as well is the increasing service by university presidents on corporate boards.  At many universities today this simply seems to be an accepted perk of the job?either explicit or implicit.  One wonders whether these close relationships between Wall Street and elite academia can actually be good for the academic mission in the long run.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on February 17, 2010 (boomark / email).