The good news for the director class from the ASIC v Star Entertainment hearing is that Justice Michael Lee feels their pain. Sort of.
On Monday, Lee gave short shrift to the argument that Star’s non-executive directors couldn't “be expected to do all the work that the company is expecting them to do, because they can’t be expected to read all the material”.
The judge suggested that if they were collecting fees, then maybe they should put up or shut up.
But on Tuesday, the judge struck a more conciliatory tone as ASIC’s lead counsel Ruth Higgins SC quoted his words back to him — even as he wondered whether directors sometimes had too many gigs and board governance might suffer as a consequence.
