In his campaign to flatter and defend CEOs and BoDs, Marty Lipton and his partners at Wachtell pursue many strategies. These feature his ongoing battles with corporate finance and corporate law scholars about the impact of activist investing on investor returns.

In this effort, Wachtell frequently cites the work of Yvon Allaire and the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGOPP). We always wondered about Allaire and IGOPP. We read this stuff with skepticism, but read it we do. The most recent analysis, on proxy access, was such a confusing morass it prompted us to dig a little deeper.

We'll let scholars like Lucian Bebchuk defend specific work against Allaire's criticism. We're more curious about the individual and the institution that Wachtell praises so exuberantly. In a current blog post, we find just another corporate lackey, the association with which should insult working academics everywhere.

You can find other useful resources at the TAI website, including our research on "Effective Activism", our new resource guides on attorneys for activist investors and on activist investing data sources, our white paper with the basics on activist investing, and our new guides on exempt solicitation, consent solicitation, and special shareholder meetings.