The editorial intern who recently joined us for the summer is a newly minted fourth-year English major at Boston University with a passion for grammar and a budding interest in business. Little did Matthew Connolly know that some of what set him apart from a field of excellent candidates was his job last summer. As a trail guide in the Adirondacks, he understood what board directors also recognize: the journey can be at times treacherous, but the views are always exhilarating. This experience made him an ideal candidate for the NACD Directorship team.
Much of the work we do here revolves around providing directors expert guidance over the rigorous terrain of the boardroom and business. Our cover story on the tort-liability system in each state is a case in point. We are again indebted to Steven B. Hantler and Steve Nowlan of the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice for their devotion to the cause of rational tort reform and also for assembling this special annual report on state legal climates for a fourth con- secutive year. Rather than profile all 50 states, for this issue the FFCJ opted instead to hone in on those states with the most vicious anti-business environments—California, Illinois and Michigan among them—and those states that seem to be holding their own or making progress. As Nowlan noted in an email to me, California epitomizes the pocketbook battle being waged against business by plaintiffs’ lawyers who engage not on the value of ideas but by pursuing what’s on the books in their jurisdictions.
This issue also features two other invaluable guides: CEO succession and liability. Expert contributions on recruitment and succession from Korn/Ferry International, planning for the unexpected from Morrison Foerster and make-or-break compensation plans from Pearl Meyer & Partners inform our coverage. For liability, who other than Chartis to provide the most current risk assessment on director liability, Fried Frank weighs in on what happens when you do get sued and Eisner provides advice on avoiding fraud. Savvy directors such as J. Thomas Presby deserve special mention for so generously sharing the wisdom they’ve acquired from their own experiences on the boardroom trails.
Judy Warner is chief content officer of Directorship and managing editor of NACD Directorship and Directorship.com