California Push to Seat More Women on Boards Ruled Unlawful - Evan Epstein Quote

California’s boardroom gender diversity law SB-826 was ruled unconstitutional.

The first-in-the-nation mandate, signed into law in 2018, was struck down by a Los Angeles state court judge Friday following a trial. The ruling was posted on the court’s website Monday.

Evan Epstein was quoted on this Bloomberg story:

"Companies were clearly not diversifying boards just out of fear of the law in California because the state was not even enforcing it, said Evan Epstein, who teaches governance at UC Hastings and is the founder of Pacifica Global Corporate Governance. It was widely expected that the law wouldn’t survive court review and one observer called it the “most successful unconstitutional law ever passed,” he said.

Unlike Europe’s mandated quotas for women on boards, rules such as that at Nasdaq are about as far as the US will likely be able to go, Epstein said."

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Pacifica Global was founded in San Francisco to serve as a leading corporate governance advisory firm. The mission of Pacifica Global is to help founders, executives, directors and investors solve some of their most complex corporate governance conflicts and challenges.