Biography of Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan is one of nine  U.S. Supreme Court justices,  and only the fourth woman to hold a position on the nations highest court since its first session in 1790. She was nominated to the court in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama, who described her as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"one of the nation’s foremost legal minds.† The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination later that year, making her the 112th justice to serve on the Supreme Court. Kagan replaced Justice John Paul Stevens, who had retired after 35 years on the court. Education Hunter College High School  in Manhattan, New York, class of 1977.Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; she earned  a bachelors degree in history in 1981.Worcester College in Oxford, England; she earned a  master’s degree in philosophy in 1983.Harvard University Law School; she earned a law degree in 1986. Career in Academia, Politics and Law Before she took a seat on the Supreme Court, Kagan worked as a professor, an attorney in private practice and as solicitor general of the United States. She was the first woman to supervise the office that handles litigation for the federal government before the Supreme Court.   Here are Kagans career highlights 1986 to 1987: Law clerk for  Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit.1988: Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to serve on the court.1989 to 1991: Associate attorney in the powerful Washington, D.C., law firm of Williams Connolly, which was co-founded by  Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary trial lawyer who represented the likes of John Hinckley Jr., Frank Sinatra, Hugh Hefner, Jimmy Hoffa and Joseph McCarthy.1991 to 1995: Assistant professor of law, then tenured professor of law, at the  University of Chicago  Law School.1995 to 1996: Associate counsel to President Bill Clinton.1997 to 1999: Deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, and deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council under Clinton.1999 to 2001: Visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.2001: Professor of law at  Harvard Law School, teaching  administrative law, constitutional law, civil pro cedure, and separation of powers theory.2003 to 2009:  Dean of the Harvard Law School. 2009 to 2010: Solicitor general under President Barack Obama.2010 to current: Associated justice of the Supreme Court. Controversies Kagans tenure on the Supreme Court has been relatively free of controversy. Yes, even Supreme Court justice invite scrutiny; ask Justice Clarence Thomas, whose absolute silence during almost seven years of oral arguments baffled court observers, legal scholars and journalists. Justice Samuel Alito, one of the most conservative voices on the court,  has openly criticized his fellow members, particularly following the courts  landmark decision on same-sex marriage. And the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was famous for his unrestrained opinions, once said homosexuality should be a crime. The biggest dustup surrounding Kagan was a request for her to recuse herself from consideration of a challenge to Obamas health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare for short. Kagans office of solicitor general under Obama had been on record as supporting the act in a legal proceeding. A group called Freedom Watch challenged Kagans judicial independence. The court declined to entertain the allegation. Kagans liberal personal beliefs and style of writing also came back to haunt her during her confirmation hearings. Conservative Republicans accused her of being unable to set aside her biases. In her memos to Justice Marshall as well as her work for Clinton, Kagan consistently wrote from her own perspective, prefacing her advice with I think and I believe and distinguishing her opinions from other members of Clintons White House team or from the presidents own opinions, said  Carrie Severino of the Conservative Judicial Crisis Network. Alabama Sen.  Jeff Sessions, a conservative Republican who would later serve in Donald Trumps administration, said: A troubling pattern has already emerged in Ms. Kagans record. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a willingness to make legal decisions based not on the law but instead on her very liberal politics. As dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan drew fire for her objection to having  military recruiters on campus because she believed the federal government policy that banned  openly gay individuals from serving in the military violated the universitys  anti-discrimination policy. Personal Life Kagan was born and raised in New York City; her mother was a school teacher and her father was an attorney. She is unmarried and has no children. 5 Important Quotes   Kagan has not granted interviews with the news media, so court observers are left to scour her opinions, briefs and testimony during her confirmation hearings. Here are some select quotes on key issues. Sometimes you read these opinions and you think they must hate each other. Its just not true.  We have enormous respect for each other and a feeling that we are all operating in good faith. ... If you take this stuff personally, this is going to be a long life tenure. - Kagan speaking about the collegiality among the justices and the court, which she described as in some ways, the most intimate, warmest institution Ive participated in.â€Å"If you confirm me, you’ll be getting Justice Kagan. You won’t get Justice Marshall.† - Kagan defending herself against claims from Republican U.S. senators that she was a legal progressive, or judicial activist, during her confirmation hearings.The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people. - Kagan, explaining her philosophy of judicial restraint.All I can say about that paper is that it is dangerous to write papers about the law before youve spent a day in law school. I wrote that paper before I spent a day in law school. I was trying to think about whether to go to law school and I decided to write a paper about law in order to figure out whether I was interested in the subject... So I would just ask you to recognize that I didnt know a whole lot of law. - Kagan telling lawmakers to ignore a paper she wrote about justice who mold and steer the law.It means  Id have to get my hair done more often, Sen. Specter. Kagan replying to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specters question about allowing television cameras in U.S. Supreme Court arguments..

Faith And The American Of The Philippines - 1096 Words

Faith Daniel is a forty-six-year-old denizen of Montgomery, Texas of Chinese descent. Even though Faith was born in the Philippines, she is profoundly influenced by her Chinese ancestry. Her ancestors moved from China to the Philippines due to a World War. She has three sisters. Faith is a certified teacher with teaching experience in the private school sector. Impressively, she can verbalize English, Mandarin, French, and dactylology. The Chinese culture places more value on male children because they carry on the family name. Therefore, when Faith s mother was pregnant with her fourth female child she was offered to trade her baby for a cousin s male child. Faith s parents refused to trade causing a significant disgrace to the family.†¦show more content†¦For instance, their house had to be thoroughly cleaned. Trash was not allowed in the house this day in fear that the family would have trash in their life all year long. Traditionally, new red clothing was laid out for ea ch person and had to be worn. Red envelopes placed under pillows contained an even amount of money. A feast prepared on New Year s Eve was available on New Year s Day. However, cooking was not allowed on the first day of the new year. Fu, the red Chinese symbol of luck, was placed upside down in their doorway to allow luck to flow into their home. Faith is able to identify various prejudices in her culture. In the Philippines, the Chinese people looked down on the Filipinos. The Filipino people were not very accepting of the Chinese because they considered them to be much smarter than they were. Her grandfather had paramount influence in the family s affairs. Faith recalls being taught that you must always marry into the same status. Her greatest fear is disrespecting her parents. Faith s father chose which college his daughters would attend and even selected their major area of study. If they did not follow his wishes, that would be a tremendous disgrace to the family. Faith s grea test success is her children. She is extremely proud that she has been able to pass down her Chinese heritage to them. Furthermore, she attributes her successes and accomplishments to her mother s lofty

Corporate Governance Australian Securities and Investment Commission

Question: Discuss about the case study Corporate Governance for Australian Securities and Investment Commission. Answer: Introduction: In the context of Australia, Public companies are commonly enlisted to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). As mentioned by Gibson and Brown (2012), these enlisted companies are the subject of broad and strict directives and they are subjected under the regulations of Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). However, in most of the recent cases it has been found that the CEOs or other managerial authorities are not satisfying the legal or ethical cravings of the organization. Here, the cases of Enron, HIH, One.Tel Ltd and many other companies can be discussed. In most of the cases, the CEOs have found guilty of ethical behaviour and lack of control of the Board of directors over them has led the companies to corporate failures. In the cases like Harris Scarfe Ltd. it has been found that the CEO was incapable and indecisive to work in favor of the company. On the other hand, in case of Parmalat, fraudulent account handling has criminalized the management. In such a cont ext, these public listed companies need to focus on the corporate governance and compliance to the ASIC norms. Purpose: From the above discussion, it can be said that the corporations need to focus on creating a better ethical and responsible environment within the company. Hence, it is needed for them to delineate the authorities between the BOD and the CEO. Moreover, to uphold good corporate governance the corporations need to take some strategic steps. Discussion: As discussed by Tricker (2015), aboard of directorscan be identified as body of nominated or selected members who in cooperation supervise or administer the activities of an organization or a profit making company. On the other hand, a CEO can be identified as the chairperson of the board. As discussed by McCahery et al. (2016), CEO is the highest executive liable for the maneuver and administration of a company. The prescribed role and responsibilities of the Board of directors: Foundation of the vision, mission and values of the company: As discussed by Erkens et al. (2016), the members of the board of directors should determine the companys vision and mission. As they are the supervisors of the management and operation of the company, they need to set the path for the members of the organization. As opined by Solomon (2014), the board of directors needs to have a better control over the corporate entities in the context of corporate failures. Hence, it is needed for the directors to determine and ingrain the values of the company among the members. The corporations are accountable to the stakeholders, hence, it is the responsibility of the board of directors to review the company goals and determine the company policies (Dean et al. 2014). According to the Legitimacy theory, the companies need to ensure that they are operating within the standards of existing society (Rezaee and Kedia 2012). Hence, the directors need to focus on laying down the values and vision of the company according to the societal norms. It is important to include non-executive directors to the board. As he/she is not liable to the management, he/she can be more independent regarding their decision and choices. The number of them must be significant. It will make the board more independent from the management. Recruit, supervise, retain, and evaluate: As opined by Christensen et al. (2015), Recruiting, supervising, retaining, evaluating and compensating the CEO or general manager are probably the most important functions of the board of directors. Within the framework of corporate governance, it is important to hire the right persons for the posts like CEO, CFO, President and many more. As discussed by Solomon (2014), in most of the cases, corporate failure has usually been attributed to behavioral factors such as exuberance, greediness and hubris in economic boom and consequences in taking of excessive risk by companies. Hence, it is important for the Board of Directors to identify the right persons and recruit them. Setting of strategy and structure of the company: As discussed by Hamilton and Micklethwait (2016), it is important for the directors to evaluate the opportunities and threats to the business operation and outline the pragmatic strategies. The directors need to prevent insolvent trading. They need to be informed of the financial status of the company. They have a statutory power to restrict insolvent trading and they are personally liable to the debts during insolvency. According to the Australian Accounting Standards (AASB), the directors are also liable to prepare the financial reports (Gibson and Brown 2012). Delegate to management: The board needs to allocate the roles; monitor, and evaluate the implementation of the strategies. They need to exercise effective internal control. In performing this task, the board needs to communicate with the senior management. Accountability to the shareholders: The board needs to ensure a proper communication and information channel back and forth with the shareholders. They need to take account of the interest of the shareholders. The board must maintain a good will with the shareholders (Anderson 2014). Other roles: The board needs to align, compensate and monitor the key executives and the board members in with the company shareholders. They need to ensure transparent and formal board nomination and election procedure. The board needs to look after the disclosure and communication procedure (Dean et al. 2014). In this context, the distinct roles of each member can be identified as following: The independent directors: They will be consulted for the issues placed before the board mainly the financial issues of the corporation. The CEO: He will be accountable for the management issues. The CFO: He will be in charge of the financial management. An executive director: He will be in charge of the risk management committee. Other members will also be there in the board. A non-executive director: He will be in charge of the audit committee. Other members should be non executive too. An executive director: He will be the charge of the appointment committee. The CEO also can be a part of the committee. On the other hand, the responsibilities of a CEO can be designated as bellow: Financial, Tax, Risk and Facilities Management: To be particular, a CEO needs to lay down the budget of the company for the boards approval. He needs to manage financial issues in accordance to the company laws and governmental regulations. Community Relations and HRM: It is one of the major duties of the CEO to present the company mission and vision in a positive manner to the society. He must be a personality who is capable enough to deliver his jobs and make his employees deliver their tasks. As mentioned by Solomon (2014), the CEO needs to promote the corporate culture that upholds ethical observance, support individual uprightness, and fulfils societal and ecological responsibility. Board Administration and Support: It is also important for the CEOs to maintain operations and management of the Board by providing recommendations and informing the members the organizational data and facts. He is also responsible for implementing the strategies developed by the board. He needs to prepare and administer the realization of key corporate policies (McCahery et al. 2012). The service: The CEO needs to investigate the design, promotion, delivery and quality products and services of the company. The CEO needs to ensure that the concerned managers are rightly administering the routine business dealings of the company and risk management can be performed when needed (Christensen et al. 2015). A number of cases can be cited as examples of corporate failures due to the lack of valuing good corporate governance in the investment decision-making models of the companies. Research and findings: If a review on the case of the American energy production company Enron can be done, the importance of good governance can be noticed vividly. The collapse of the company was a result violation of number corporate principles. As mentioned by Soltani (2014), the existence of off-balance sheet liabilities hidden in Special Purpose Entities (SPE) was used to move financing off-balance sheet and avoid consolidation of the SPE. Moreover, Enron boosted its reported income from allegedly laissez-faire transactions. The SPE also allowed the company to increase its reported cash flow. On the other hand, the key personalities of the company found guilty of ethical degradation. As mentioned by Smith (2015), the Chairman Ken Lay, CEO Jeffrey Skilling and CFO Andrew Fastow were found guilty of fraud. The CEO ware found following the senior executives blindly and avoided any review of the company proceedings. In addition, the company was following poor internal controls that led to accounting malpractices. The auditor Arthur Andersen was also ineffective and criminal and fraudulent proceedings led to the companys collapse (Lessambo 2014). On the other hand, in the case of One.Tel Ltd. in Australia, an excessive risk taking, poor costing, credit administration, and dominant management led the company to corporate failure (Anderson 2014). Whereas, in the case of Harris Scarfe Ltd. the issue was with the bad administration and fraudulent account handling and exposure irregularities for more than six years (Smith 2015). In addition, in the case of HIH, the company was led to failure due to deception by directly manipulating the accounting records, failed management, and ignorance of the shareholders rights. As discussed by Hamilton and Micklethwait (2016), the same thing happened in the case of Parmalat in 2003. The company tasted failure due to absence of power and autonomy of the non-executive directors, over dominating management, poor accounting and lack of internal control. As mentioned by Anderson (2014), the company was also a victim of insider trading and undisclosed related party transactions of senior corporate officers. However, if a review on the success stories can be done, it can be noticed that following a good corporate governance practice has helped the companies to obtain a better investment return as well as public acceptance. In the case of theCoca-ColaCompany, strengthening the board and management accountability, establishing Corporate Governance Guidelines, regular reviews of the corporate culture, establishing charters for all the board committees helped the company to develop good corporate governance (McCahery et al. 23016). Establishment of Codes of Business Conduct, disseminating the information regarding the method of reporting apprehensions about the organization and its public policy, helped the company to attain a huge rage of investor return, public trust and company eminence. However, from the above stated discussion it can be said that the companies need to follow some strategies to uplift their good corporate governance practices and increase their rate of investor return. Recommendations: The companies need to build a strong and competent BOD: As opined by Solomon (2014), it is important for the companies to uphold a strategy of electing the board members by the shareowners. Thus, it will ensure the maintenance of the interest of the shareholders and the long-term health and overall success of the business and its financial strength. The board should be comprised of the members, who are competent, decisive and possess strong ethics and integrity, diverse backgrounds and skill sets. As discussed by Rezaee and Kedia (2012), the majority of the directors must be independent. It will ensure unbiased judgment. Moreover, it is also important to educate the directors and make them familiar with the business, respective roles and the boards expectations. A regular review of the board mandates and assessment of the directors performance is also needed. As opined by Balkaran (2013), the corporations must develop an engaged Board where directors ask questions and challenge management and don't just "rubber-stamp" management's recommendations. Distinct roles of the management and executives: Clearly written mandates for each executive and typical committee (audit, compensation and others) need to be maintained. As described by Kandukuri et al. (2015), role descriptions for the board members, the CEO and executives should be preserved. Integrity and ethical dealing: It can be identified as one of the major principles of good corporate governance. As opined by Denis (2016), the corporations need to implement a conflict of interest policy and a code of business conduct. A structured procedure to report and treat disobedience, and a Whistleblower policy should also be maintained. Moreover, the management needs to ensure that the directors would abstain from voting over the issues in which they have an interest. Evaluation: The board has to ensure that the fees will attract the suitable candidates but it will not limit the director's autonomy or fulfillment of his job roles. Establishing a performance target for the executives including the CEO and evaluating it and tie compensation to performance is also needed. Risk management: The corporations must look into the issues of risks potential to be faced. These can be financial, reputational, industry-related, operational, environmental or legal. As discussed by Tricker (2015), lack of independence leads to risk taking behavior. The board need to establish strategic leadership for the organizations risk tolerance. A clear framework for managing risks needed to be found and evaluated regularly. Moreover, as opined by Solomon (2014), the BOD should challenge management's assumptions and the adequacy of the company's risk management processes and procedures. Conclusion: Hence, it can be concluded that to ensure a better performance, the corporations need to focus on their management and operation pattern. The shareholders can be identified as the foundations of a public listed corporation. Hence, as discussed by various theories, it is important to follow a good corporate governance to earn their trust and uphold their interest. In the recent decades, a number of companies have faced disastrous corporate failures by disregarding the principles of corporate governance. Hence, the public listed corporations must concentrate to this and take the appropriate actions. References: Anderson, H., 2014. Pressing the right buttons: Australian case studies in the protection of employee entitlements against corporate insolvency.International Labour Review,153(1), pp.117-142. Balkaran, L., 2013. Auditing the Corporate Governance Effort in an Organization.EDPACS,48(4), pp.12-18. Christensen, J., Kent, P., Routledge, J. and Stewart, J., 2015. Do corporate governance recommendations improve the performance and accountability of small listed companies?.Accounting Finance,55(1), pp.133-164. Dean, G., Clarke, F. and Egan, M., 2014. Corporate capers, accounting and governance reform.Governance Directions,66(9), p.541. Denis, D.K., 2016. Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization.Forthcoming in the Financial Review. Erkens, D.H., Hung, M. and Matos, P., 2012. Corporate governance in the 20072008 financial crisis: Evidence from financial institutions worldwide.Journal of Corporate Finance,18(2), pp.389-411. Gibson, B. and Brown, D., 2012. ASIC'S expectations of directors.UNSWLJ,35, p.254. Hamilton, S. and Micklethwait, A., 2016.Greed and corporate failure: The lessons from recent disasters. Springer. Kandukuri, R.L., Memdani, L. and Babu, P.R., 2015. Effect of Corporate Governance on Firm PerformanceA Study of Selected Indian Listed Companies.Overlaps of Private Sector with Public Sector around the Globe (Research in Finance, Volume 31) Emerald Group Publishing Limited,31, pp.47-64. Lessambo, F.I., 2014. Corporate Governance, Accounting and Auditing Scandals. InThe International Corporate Governance System(pp. 244-263). Palgrave Macmillan UK. McCahery, J.A., Sautner, Z. and Starks, L.T., 2016. Behind the scenes: The corporate governance preferences of institutional investors.The Journal of Finance. Rezaee, Z. and Kedia, B.L., 2012. Role of corporate governance participants in preventing and detecting financial statement fraud.Journal of Forensic Investigative Accounting,4(2), pp.176-205. Smith, H., 2015. Australia's Company Law Watchdog: ASIC and Corporate Regulation. Solomon, J., 2014. Corporate Governance and Accountability. 4th Edition, Wiley, USA. Soltani, B., 2014. The anatomy of corporate fraud: A comparative analysis of high profile American and European corporate scandals.Journal of Business Ethics,120(2), pp.251-274. Tricker, B., 2015.Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices. Oxford University Press, USA.