On November 3, 2021, Corp Fin issued new guidance which signals a major shift in the SEC’s approach to no-action requests to exclude shareholder proposals relating to environmental and social ("E&S") matters. Previously, the...more
As calendar year-end companies received shareholder proposals for their 2021 annual meetings, they faced a variety of uncertainties and challenges, including navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the racial inequities...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented economic disruptions worldwide. Businesses that were previously flourishing are now seeing rapid declines in demand and revenue, disruptions in their supply chains, and other...more
The Situation: Late last year, a shareholder sued NorthWestern Corporation ("NWE") to compel the company to include a climate-change related proposal in its 2020 proxy materials after NWE had notified the staff of the...more
Companies preparing for their annual shareholder meetings will need to consider a variety of factors, including new guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and recommendations from Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass...more
You may recall that, last month, Corp Fin announced that it had revisited its approach to responding to no-action requests to exclude shareholder proposals. In essence, under the new policy, the staff may respond to some...more
Glass Lewis recently posted its comprehensive 2020 voting guidelines, which are summarized on the first page of the 2020 voting guidelines as well as on the Glass Lewis blog. Among other things, the 2020 voting guidelines...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued several important recent updates regarding shareholder proposals and the related no-action request process for companies to consider ahead of the 2019-2020 proxy...more
On October 16, 2019, the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published Staff Legal Bulletin (SLB) No. 14K providing guidance on Rule 14a-8 under the Securities Exchange...more
It’s been a busy late summer and early fall for the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the Staff) as it relates to shareholder proposals and the Staff’s historical involvement in the no-action process related to...more
You may recall that, earlier this month, Corp Fin announced that it had revisited its approach to responding to no-action requests to exclude shareholder proposals. In essence, under the new policy, the staff may respond to...more
On September 6, 2019, the staff (the “Staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance (“Corp Fin”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced1 two significant changes to the Rule 14a-8 no-action process...more
On September 6, 2019, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance announced two notable revisions to its approach to handling no-action requests by companies seeking to exclude shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8....more
As foreshadowed by Corp Fin Director Bill Hinman at an event in July put on by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Corp Fin has announced that it is revisiting its approach to responding to no-action requests to exclude shareholder...more
The Background: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("the SEC") has announced that it may no longer review no-action letter requests relating to shareholder proposals submitted to companies under Rule 14a-8. The SEC...more
You might remember this no-action letter to Johnson & Johnson granting relief to the company if it relied on Rule 14a-8(i)(2) (violation of law) to exclude a shareholder proposal requesting adoption of mandatory shareholder...more
On February 11, 2019, the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance granted no-action relief permitting Johnson & Johnson to omit a a shareholder proposal from its proxy statement relating to mandatory arbitration of...more
What Is a Proposal? Rule 14a-8(a) defines a shareholder proposal as a ‘‘recommendation or requirement that the company and/or its board of directors take action, which you intend to present at a meeting of the company’s...more
On the heels of the release of SLB 14J, Corp Fin has posted a couple of new no-action letters that shed some more light on the “ordinary business” exclusion of Rule 14a-8(i)(7). As you may recall, in SLB 14J, the staff...more
On October 23, 2018, the Division of Corporation Finance (Staff) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14J (SLB 14J), which provides important guidance concerning shareholder...more
In past few years, after Corp Fin issued Staff Legal Bulletin 14H redefining the meaning of “direct conflict” under the Rule 14a-8(i)(9) exclusion for “conflicting proposals,” the staff has continued to fill in the outline of...more
You might recall that, in November last year, Corp Fin issued new Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I, Shareholder Proposals, which, among other things, addressed the “economic relevance” exclusion of Rule 14a-8(i)(5). That rule...more
This proxy season, after the Corp Fin staff permitted AES Corporation to exclude a shareholder proposal on the basis of Rule 14a-8(i)(9)—the exclusion for a proposal that directly conflicts with a management proposal—the...more
The Council of Institutional Investors has sent a letter to William Hinman, director of Corp Fin, raising objections to the staff’s treatment of a recent shareholder proposal. The staff permitted the company, the AES...more
On Nov. 1, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued Staff Legal Bulletin (SLB) No.14I to provide additional guidance related to shareholder proposals and Exchange Act Rule 14a-8. Specifically, the SLB...more