Hazen Article on Director Duties

Each year in my Nonprofit Law class we have an unsettling and unsatisfying discussion about the fiduciary duties of nonprofit directors.  The hard part comes when someone inevitably asks about enforcement.  Who ensures that nonprofit directors satisfy their legal obligations?  My stock answer is “newspaper reporters,” at least in my home state of North Carolina.

Tom Hazen and Lisa Hazen recently authored an article,now posted on SSRN in draft form, that attempts to chart out fiduciary duties and the enforcement of those duties under North Carolina law.  It’s worth a look, partly because it is an example of a scholarly project intended to provide helpful guidance — for lawyers and laypeople — through a murky area of nonprofit law.

TAK