FiRe-Seminar: Executive legal expertise and corporate transparency

Bruce Hearn is Full Professor in Governance at the University of Southampton, with over two decades of research experience in corporate governance across emerging markets and offshore financial centers. Prior to his academic career, he held senior risk management positions at leading investment banks including BNP Paribas, HSBC, and Credit Agricole CIB.

In his paper, Hearn examines how the presence of lawyer-executives on corporate boards shapes firm-level transparency. Drawing on a novel dataset of 183 listed firms across ten Caribbean stock exchanges (2000–2017), the study shows that a higher proportion of lawyers in executive roles is positively associated with corporate transparency – an effect amplified in jurisdictions characterized by high financial secrecy and strong institutional quality. The paper bridges resource-based and institutional theory through the lens of legal astuteness as a dynamic managerial capability.