Nonprofit Basics: Conflict of Interest Policies and Best Practices for Approving Insider Compensation
FCPA Compliance Report-Episode 330 Robin Bew and Henry Stoever of the NACD
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 119-FCPA Year in Review, Part I
Seven years ago, I addressed the question of whether the board of directors of a California corporation could remove a fellow director...more
Most legal entities like corporations have officers and directors who, together, run the business. Directors sit on the board of directors and collectively govern and oversee the entity. In contrast, officers generally...more
Public company directors are under more pressure than ever to oversee enterprise risk, even risk from day-to-day operations, which is normally addressed by management. Egregious failures of upper management to react to red...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has charged a group of small companies with making deficient filings on Form 12b-25, harkening back to the SEC's "broken windows" strategy from the last decade....more
There are potentially a number of ramifications to classifying a board member as employee, including whether the corporation may be entitled to obtain a workplace violence restraining order petition pursuant to Section 527.8...more
Section 204(a)(10) of the California Corporations Code permits the articles of incorporation to include provisions eliminating or limiting the personal liability of a director for monetary damages in an action brought by or...more
Clawback compensation has been a longstanding tool for both public and private companies to recoup excesses paid to employees after the occurrence of certain untoward events. For example, it is not uncommon to find clawback...more
On occasion, someone might perceive that they have been improperly appointed as a director or officer of a corporation. If this unfortunate circumstance occur, is there any mechanism for publicly disclaiming the...more
On April 24, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) extended the time period for its review and approval of the clawback-related listing standards from April 27, 2023 to June 11, 2023....more
Several years ago, I wrote about the various meanings of "person" in the California Corporations Code. All of the definitions mentioned in that post included corporations within the list of persons. If a corporation is a...more
It is an old rule of English law that the only person who can sue for a wrong done to a company is the company itself. Related to that rule is the principle that an individual shareholder cannot bring a personal claim for a...more
Public company executives have long engaged with their shareholders, especially during proxy season, to share business strategy and address investor concerns. In recent years, public company directors have increasingly...more
On January 27, 2023, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) published four new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (CDIs) relating to the SEC’s recently adopted clawback rules. Please refer to our previous...more
In yesterday's post, I highlighted a new discussion paper arguing that Twitter's leaders through its stakeholders "under the bus" in favor of the interests of the stockholders. According to the authors, stakeholder...more
Shareholder engagement is an imperative for every public company. And with the recent adoption of universal proxy cards, 2023 promises to inject fresh uncertainty into how companies think about and approach that engagement....more
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is pleased to present our 2022 Silicon Valley 150 Corporate Governance Report, which reviews the corporate governance practices and disclosures of the Valley’s largest public companies. ...more
On October 26, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted long-delayed rules which will require companies to implement mandatory "clawback" policies with respect to incentive-based compensation if the company's...more
On October 26, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved final rules that will ultimately require public companies to adopt, enforce, and disclose policies to recover (or “clawback”) excess...more
Elon Musk recently said he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy, pithily declaring what most financial commentators have been predicting in more technical terms....more
As strict economic sanctions become more common, what can multinationals do to prepare for forced exits from countries or JVs? With employees quitting in record numbers and millions of jobs going unfilled, how can boards...more
Alexander M. Cutler, lead director of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. Q: Based on your experience, what are some of the key elements of a highly functioning board? A: Recognizing that there is no “one size fits all” blueprint, my...more
California Corporations Code Section 22003 effectively deems directors to be all-knowing...more
The California General Corporation Law provides that any director may resign effective upon giving notice to certain specified persons, unless the notice specifies a later time for the effectiveness of his or her...more
In prescribing the duties of directors, California Corporations Code Section 309 provides that a director is entitled to rely on information, opinions, reports or statements prepared or presented by "counsel, independent...more
Enacted in 2020, AB 979 requires publicly held domestic or foreign corporations having their principal executive offices in California to have specified minimum numbers of directors from "underrepresented communities". Cal....more