Neil Wertlieb Interviewed by Variety for a Series of Articles on Corporate Liability in Sexual Harassment Claims
Neil Wertlieb was interviewed by entertainment industry trade Variety about how a wave of sexual harassment claims has raised corporate liability issues. “We’ve reached a massive turning point with the flood of women and men feeling comfortable coming forward with their stories,” says Neil Wertlieb, an adjunct professor at UCLA School of Law, and whose Wertlieb Law Corp. specializes in corporate governance issues.
“I don’t see this going back to the way it was. This shows management, boards, investors and advertisers that there are some serious problems in corporate America,” Wertlieb says. “People who run businesses have to be ultra-sensitive to their fiduciary duty to maintain the integrity of their businesses, otherwise it can subject them to liability if the board or senior management was aware of these things but took no action.”
The December 13, 2017 article, entitled “Corporations Must Embrace Diversity to Prevent Misconduct and Liability Costs From Sexual Harassment,” appears at http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/corporations-complicit-behavior-sexual-misconduct-1202638205/.
Mr. Wertlieb was also interviewed by Variety on this same topic for an article published on October 25, 2017, entitled “Weinstein Scandal Triggers Questions of Corporate Liability and Even Complicity”:
Neil Wertlieb, adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Law whose practice focuses on expert witness work as it relates to the fiduciary duties of companies, said “the potential exposure, depending on the circumstances, could pose issues for supervisors all the way up the chain to boards of directors.”
He thinks that the focus on what corporate officers and boards “knew and should know” will linger. “Today there is an enhanced scrutiny of the alleged abusive actions of officers of companies, whether it is abusing their power or abusing their discretion. The Weinstein situation has brought this out under a spotlight,” he said.