At Kirby McInerney, we have a long history of activity in the corporate governance arena. In connection with the KKR takeover of RJR in 1988, inspiration of "Barbarians at the Gate", our firm established that investment bankers advising target boards have duties running directly to target shareholders. This led to a substantial recovery for the target shareholders.

Hollinger is a recently celebrated corporate governance initiative. In the Spring 2003, Hollinger’s principal shareholder, Tweedy Browne, engaged KM to eliminate what was referred to as the Black Discount. That required the removal of the Conrad Black, a process we set in motion by a series of sophisticated, little employed maneuvers in Delaware, home to many corporations and oracle of corporate law.

Tweedy Browne had approximately thirteen million shares of the company trading at substantially less than $10.00 at the time of our engagement. After it became clear that Mr. Black would no longer control Hollinger, the stock rose from less than $10 to in excess of $20.00 per share, an increase of more than $100 million in Tweedy’s holdings.

If you are interested in learning more about the firm's Corporporate Governance initiatives or if you would like to bring a matter to our attention, please contact Ira Press at ipress@kmllp.com