Professor Robert Yalden is focusing his research on the “forces that shape competing perspectives on the role of corporations, boards of directors and different stakeholders, and that, in turn, shape the institutional architecture that countries put in place to oversee and foster the evolution of business law.”
Professor Robert Yalden is focusing his research on the “forces that shape competing perspectives on the role of corporations, boards of directors and different stakeholders, and that, in turn, shape the institutional architecture that countries put in place to oversee and foster the evolution of business law.”

This Q&A is part of a series featuring faculty members joining Queen’s Law this summer. 2018 is a banner year for faculty hires, with the addition of seven new professors to the school’s roster of exceptional scholars. All of these new talented researchers have already earned international recognition in their fields. 

Upon arriving in Kingston, Professor Robert Yalden spoke with Queen’s Law Reports to share his professional and personal interests. 

Why did you decide to join Queen’s Law?

The Stephen Sigurdson Professorship in Corporate Law and Finance was created at the right time. I had been in practice for 25 years with Osler, where Steve had been a partner and where I had had the privilege of working with him when I was a young associate, so the job posting caught my eye. I have taught corporate and securities law since the early ’90s, and published regularly on business law issues, but was keen to devote more time to teaching, research and dialogue about public policy issues that shape Canadian business law. So I decided to apply for the position. I was already aware that the Faculty had excellent business law scholars. But the more I got to know the Faculty as a whole and its desire to keep building on its strengths in this area, the more convinced I became that this really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

What got you interested in your area of law?

In law school I had a passion for administrative and constitutional law (areas that I still find incredibly interesting). But to my great surprise, my student experience with Osler gave rise to a passion for business law. During my articles I worked extensively on the first “poison pill” adopted in Canada. This involved fascinating research and analysis of fundamental issues underlying Canadian business law, as we tried to sort out whether we could adapt a U.S. M&A defense strategy to fit within Canada’s corporate and securities law frameworks and as debate raged about what role Canadian boards of directors should play in the face of hostile take-over bids. Soon after that I had the opportunity to teach a corporate and securities law course at McGill. That allowed me to build on my experience at Osler and to explore a range of public policy issues that were not being examined in much depth in Canadian business law courses at the time. The experiences at Osler and McGill were the genesis of my decision to build a career in business law.  

Yalden fast facts

Tell us about your research.

I have a longstanding interest in the purpose that we expect corporations to serve and the way different visions of that purpose shape business law frameworks in Canada and in other countries. I have been especially intrigued by the way corporate and securities law sometimes embrace competing visions of the corporation, as well as by their often differing perspectives both on how boards should approach their decision making process and on which stakeholders’ interests they should factor into that process. My research aims to better understand the forces shaping these different perspectives and, in turn, the institutional architecture that countries put in place to oversee and foster the evolution of business law. I am fascinated by these big picture issues, but I am equally concerned with the way debates about these matters affect the development of principles and practices that guide day to day decision making in corporations. Indeed, I have long been concerned that corporate and securities law in Canada are not as well integrated as they should be because they embrace different conceptions of the corporation, with the result that they advance competing principles that are not easily reconciled in practice. This has given rise to significant tensions that have very real consequences for how corporate and securities law come at particular problems, as well as for the standards that these bodies of law ask boards of directors and management teams to live up to as they consider questions affecting the future of the corporation. 

What are you most proud of?

Being invited to join Queen’s Law and to become the first Sigurdson Professor; maintaining a sustained commitment to teaching and publishing throughout my years in practice; being a founding partner and then contributing for close to two decades to building the Montreal office of Osler (in both of Canada’s official languages); serving as a law clerk to Bertha Wilson (the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada) and supporting her work on a number of seminal decisions; my involvement for over a decade on the Board of Canada’s leading NGO devoted to human rights education (EQUITAS) and its extraordinary domestic and international programs; and, most especially, my parents (who devoted their careers to public service and academia), my spouse (a human rights lawyer and educator) and my daughter (flourishing as a university student), for they have all shaped my values and principles for the better.

Any hobbies or interests?

  • Cross-country skiing and running (born of my time doing both competitively in high school and then as an undergraduate with the Queen’s Varsity teams)
  • Travel, food and wine (France and Greece being high on those lists for family reasons)
  • Art, music, theatre and good books