Shane Goodwin, Ph.D., LL.M.

Expert witness · Corporate governance · M&A · Valuation

Testimony and analysis grounded in twenty-five years of deal work — and a primary-source research program.

Shane Goodwin is Professor of Practice in Finance at SMU Cox, Adjunct Professor of Law at SMU Dedman, and Executive Director of the SMU Corporate Governance Initiative. Before academia: nearly 25 years in M&A, shareholder activism, and investment banking at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo Securities.

Discuss an engagement
~25 yearsM&A, activism & investment banking
Ph.D., LL.M.Finance & law, dual appointment at SMU
NACDCertified Director & Board Leadership Fellow
Two live datasetsReincorporation Index · TBC Codex

Selected engagements — on the public record

Every engagement listed here is disclosed in a public filing, court docket, or legislative record, linked directly to the source.

Tesla, Inc. — Special Committee governance advisor

Governance Advisor to the Special Committee of Tesla's Board of Directors in connection with the 2025 CEO Performance Award, addressing fiduciary duties under Texas law.

Tesla Definitive Proxy Statement (Sept. 17, 2025) →

United States v. Google LLC — expert witness

Expert witness for Google in the remedy phase of United States v. Google LLC, No. 1:23-cv-00108 (E.D. Va.) (Oct. 2025).

SMU faculty record →

Texas Senate — SB 29 testimony

Testified before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs in support of Senate Bill 29 (signed May 14, 2025), which modernized the Texas Business Organizations Code.

SB 29 legislative history →

Practice areas

M&A expert witness →

Deal process, board conduct in sale processes, activism and contested transactions, disclosure practice — from a practitioner who ran these processes for two and a half decades.

Corporate governance & fiduciary duties →

Board process, special committees, controller transactions, executive compensation, Delaware and Texas standards of review — including the post-2025 Texas framework.

Valuation & fairness opinions →

Business valuation, fairness-opinion practice, event-study and market-evidence analysis, damages frameworks in fiduciary and transaction litigation.

Research — the empirical record behind the testimony

As Executive Director of the SMU Corporate Governance Initiative, Goodwin publishes source-linked, replicable datasets used by practitioners, scholars, and journalists.

DatasetThe Reincorporation Index — the live registry of U.S. public-company state-of-incorporation changes, with vote records and SEC-linked sources.

DatasetThe Texas Business Court Codex — every opinion of the Texas Business Court, doctrinally coded against the signed PDFs.

CommentaryRecent work in Fortune, Bloomberg Law, the Securities Regulation Law Journal, and the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog — see the publications list.