2025 Harold Ford Memorial Lecture

Directors' Duties and Politics

From Coors Brewing Company to Tesla, some company directors have been so renowned for imposing their personal political views on their company’s corporate speech they have become embedded within pop culture.

In Australia, recent political debates including the Voice referendum, climate-change, and gender-diversity issues have all been subject to corporate stances.

Directors owe an obligation to the company to act in its best interests, and to avoid situations where their interests might conflict with the interests of the company.

So, if a director of an Australian company imposes their own personal political values on the company’s corporate speech, could this breach their fiduciary duties as director?

The Hon. Justice Simon Steward AC of the High Court of Australia will discuss the extent to which Australian directors can institute their own politics on corporate speech without breaching their obligations as directors.

Pre-lecture refreshments | 5:15pm - 6pm
Public Lecture | 6pm - 7pm

The Harold Ford Lecture series is generously supported by Clayton Utz.

About the presenter

Justice Simon Steward AC was appointed to the High Court in December 2020. At the time of his appointment, he was a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia to which he had been appointed in February 2018. At that time, he was also a Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He holds a first class honours and a masters degree in law from the University of Melbourne.

He was admitted to practice as a solicitor in 1992 and was called to the Victorian Bar in 1999 where he practiced in revenue law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2009. He is a former President of the Tax Bar Association of the Victorian Bar and is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne School of Law.

About the lecture series

This lecture is named in honour of Melbourne Law School’s distinguished alumnus, Professor Harold Ford, who passed away in September 2012. Professor Ford spent almost his entire career at Melbourne Law School following his appointment to the Law School in 1949. He was Dean of the Law School in 1964 and from 1967 to 1973. He is remembered as a gifted teacher by several generations of law students.

Professor Ford also made many important contributions to law reform and co-authored a leading text titled Principles of the Law of Trusts and other influential books. The Harold Ford Memorial Lecture celebrates the many contributions of Professor Ford to Melbourne Law School, the legal profession, and to the development of corporate law and trusts law.

The Harold Ford Memorial Lecture is proudly sponsored by Clayton Utz.