Featured Facutly: Julian Velasco
Associate Professor of Law
Business has always been a family affair for Notre Dame Associate Professor of Law Julian Velasco. Growing up in New Jersey, Velasco’s immigrant parents were wholesale and retail grocers who ran bodegas, or corner stores. Velasco’s exposure to the workings of a market piqued his interest in business and left him wanting to know more about what makes for a successful enterprise.
To that end, Velasco earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Georgetown University, graduating magna cum laude. However, his theoretical interests led him to pursue minors in philosophy and theology as well. He continued his education at Columbia Law School where he decided to hone in on the study of corporate law, specifically corporate governance, because “it brings the practical elements of business together with theory and ideology,” says Velasco.
The public’s interest in the business practices of corporations has reached new heights with the recent economic fiasco and federal bailout efforts. “There is a crisis of confidence in leadership—in both our private business leaders and our elected public officials,” says Velasco.
Velasco’s prescription for a return to responsibility in the private sector involves “structural” changes in corporate governance — which are strategic and lasting — rather than “substantive solutions,” such as the CEO salary cap proposed by the Obama administration — which are band-aid responses that won’t solve the problems and may cause more harm than good in the long run. “Two examples of structural solutions that I endorse are shareholder access and majority voting, both of which make board directors more accountable to shareholders,” says Velasco. Shareholder access would allow shareholders to nominate director candidates. Majority voting would require that directors receive a majority of shareholders’ votes to be seated and remain on a board (rather than a mere plurality), allowing shareholders to remove inadequate directors — and, indirectly, inadequate officers — more easily.
On March 27, Velasco will host “The Future of Fiduciary Duties in Corporate Law,” a symposium featuring a distinguished group of scholars who will consider the issue of accountability for corporate officers and directors. For details, visit http://www.nd.edu/~ndlaw/conferences/fiduciary.
Selected scholarship by Julian Velasco:
Taking Shareholder Rights Seriously, 41 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 605 (2007).
The Fundamental Rights of the Shareholder, 40 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 407 (2006).
Structural Bias and the Need for Substantive Review, 82 Wash. U.L.Q. 821 (2004), reprinted in 47 Corp. Prac. Commentator 679 (2005).
To learn more about Professor Velasco, visit his faculty profile page.
