Battle Between Harvard University and SEC Commissioner Heats Up

The battle over Harvard University’s Shareholder Rights program involving a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official is heating up.

Today thirty-four senior corporate lawyers or securities law professors from the nation’s top institutions issued a letter calling on Republican SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher and co-author Stanford University Professor Joseph Grundfest to withdraw allegations that Harvard University’s Shareholder’s Rights Project violated securities laws by assisting institutional investors in submitting shareholder proposals to declassify corporate boards.

The release of the letter on the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation blog this morning was followed hours later by a competing press statement from three former SEC general counsels supporting Gallagher and Grundfest.