The 2025 Winner of the Carl Liggio Memorial Paper Competition has been announced!
ACC is pleased to announce that Governance Gambits and Business Judgment in In/Out-sourcing Tactics, authored by Professor Maria Lucia Passador, has won the 2025 Carl Liggio Memorial Paper Competition. This paper offers a timely and insightful analysis of how corporate and governing boards can equip themselves to address emerging challenges — such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and geopolitical risk by balancing internal expertise with external advisory support.
The goal of the Carl Liggio Memorial Paper Competition is to encourage academic research of how management reporting structures impact the well-being of organizations, particularly management structures involving the role of the chief legal officer. The competition offers a $20,000 prize and an opportunity to present the research before an exclusive group of CLOs at the ACC Chief Legal Officer Global Summit.
In 2024, ACC was proud to present the inaugural winner, Independent or Informed: How Combining the Roles of Corporate Secretary and Chief Legal Officer Impacts Legal Risk, authored by professors Jagadison K Aier, Justin Hopkins, and Syrena Shirley. This paper concluded that when the CLO also serves as the corporate secretary, the number of shareholder lawsuits, regulatory violations, and regulatory penalties paid decreased.
The 2026 Call for Papers will open on Monday, June 2, 2025.