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Legal Liabilities of Board Members

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Course questions Question 1: Legal liabilities of board members The board is critical in running an economic entity as it represents the backbone of its decision making process, as well as the backbone of the entire organizational affairs, activities and public image. As member of the board, the individual occupies a powerful and privileged position within the firm, but this position also comes with responsibilities. In other words, the board members are also subjected to some legal liabilities. At a most basic level, the legal liabilities of the board members refer to the following: the duty of care, the duty of loyalty and the duty regarding the personal and corporate assets (Murray). In terms of the duty liability, this sees that the board members will continually act in favor of the best interests of the organizational stakeholders (employees, customers, public, business partners and so on); in cases in which they promote interests other than those of the stakeholders, the board members can be subjected to legal repercussions. The duty of loyalty for the board members revolves around the obligation of the executives to avoid any conflicts of interest. In case they become involved in such situations, they can be held accountable in front of the law; the application of the liabilities will depend on the nature of the situation and will depend from one instance to the other. Finally, Jean Murray states that the third set of duties generative of legal

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