Services
Board and executive counsel
Some of our most important advice is given to one person, in private, about a decision that has not yet been made. It is often the advice that makes a statement unnecessary.
We advise chairs, chief executives, senior independent directors and general counsel on matters that touch their organisation’s reputation and, sometimes, their own: leadership changes, contested appointments and departures, internal investigations, governance disputes, activist shareholders and the aftermath of a crisis.
Much of this work happens before anything is decided. A board considering whether to replace its chief executive needs to know how each option will be understood by employees, investors, regulators and the press before it chooses one, not after. We help boards see that clearly, and then help them carry out the decision with as little damage as possible to the organisation and the people involved.
We also advise individuals in their personal capacity where their position and their organisation’s are bound up together, always with the organisation’s knowledge where there could be a conflict.
What it involves
- Counsel to chairs, boards, special committees and general counsel
- Leadership transitions: announcements, timing and the people affected
- Internal investigations and their reporting
- Activist and contested situations, with the client’s financial and legal advisers
- Post-crisis reviews for boards: what was said, what was done, and what should change
In practice Margaret Halden has advised the chairs of nineteen listed companies. She has not given an interview about any of them.
Who to talk to
- Margaret Halden Senior Partner, London margaret.halden@haldenrook.com
- Laura Whitcombe Partner, New York laura.whitcombe@haldenrook.com
Case studies
- 2022A national museum returning part of its collectionConcluded