American Lawyer Media Launches D&O Advisor

Posted on April 18, 2003

American Lawyer Media, Inc. (ALM), a legal journalism and information company, will introduce a new quarterly legal magazine for corporate directors and officers in May. D&O Advisor will focus on corporate governance and legal risk management issues and be distributed to an audience of more than 15,000, including board members, CEO's and corporate secretaries of the largest U.S. public and privately held companies.

The four-color magazine is designed to provide practical advice and analysis on director-level legal issues and assist directors and officers in identifying and meeting their expanding corporate oversight responsibilities. The journal will feature analysis articles contributed by leading law practitioners, professors and experts in the areas of corporate governance, legal risk management, liability and related fields. The magazine will also include news and feature articles written by editors and reporters from ALM's publications. The first issue of D&O Advisor will be published in late May.

The editorial direction of D&O Advisor will be guided by an advisory board whose members include Richard Beattie, chairman of the executive committee of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Robert Clark of Harvard Law School; Peter Clapman, chief counsel, corporate governance, TIAA-CREF; June Eichbaum, partner at Heidrick & Struggles; Martin Lipton, corporate partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Larry Sonsini, chairman and CEO of Wilson, Sonsini, Rosati & Goodrich.

"Expanding compliance requirements, regulatory oversight and scrutiny from shareholders and the media have created unprecedented demands - and liability - for directors and officers, " said William Pollak, president and CEO of ALM. "It's clear that no publication was available that delivered sophisticated legal information, in plain English, to help this high-level business audience understand and respond to developing issues in these fast-changing areas. D&O Advisor will bring the thinking of the best legal minds in the country to bear on these topics, in a no-nonsense, journal format."

Each issue's cover story will focus on real-world governance practice, including case studies of initiatives that have been undertaken in emerging areas. Analysis pieces will provide discussion of a variety of current topics, from structuring audit oversight groups and drafting ethics statements to evaluating liability insurance alternatives. The magazine will include news articles reporting on legal risk management and governance developments, as well as regulatory and legislative changes that impact directors.

D&O Advisor's audience of 15,000 will consist of non-executive directors at U.S. corporations, as well as the general counsel and chairmen/CEOs of these corporations. The magazine's secondary audience will include corporate and other senior partners at major law firms. All issues will be delivered to primary office locations or home addresses.