Recent changes in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proxy rules will give shareholders the ability to vote for directors like never before. The new rules will require companies to provide universal proxy cards to...more
by Cydney Posner There has been a fair amount of press regarding the Financial CHOICE Act, a new bill sponsored by Jeb Hensarling, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. The actual bill has not yet been released,...more
As noted in TheCorporateCounsel.net blog, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has once again submitted, on behalf of a number of NYC pension funds, a raft of shareholder proposals for proxy access as part of the...more
Shareholder proponent James McRitchie, who was successful in persuading the SEC to reconsider its no-action position with Whole Foods on proxy access, has hinted at his intentions for the upcoming proxy season, or at least...more
Some will want to start preliminary planning for the 2016 proxy season. It has been a bewildering year of developments, but most will be thankful that there are relatively few new rules that must be implemented at this time....more
Earlier this year, the Canadian Coalition of Good Governance (CCGG) released its publication “Shareholder Involvement in the Director Nomination Process: Enhanced Engagement and Proxy Access”, proposing enhanced proxy access...more
Proxy access, meaning the ability of stockholders to put their nominees on management’s proxy card and create a proxy contest without having to file their own proxy statement, was the marquee issue of the 2015 proxy season....more
The SEC has posted a new staff working paper, “Public versus Private Provision of Governance: The Case of Proxy Access,” reporting on a study conducted by the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA), of the...more
Or, at least, that seems to be the position of the SEC staff following the tongue–lashing it suffered in 2011, when the D.C. Circuit tossed out the SEC’s mandatory proxy access rules. You may recall that plaintiffs Chamber of...more
The integrity of the shareholder vote is a cornerstone of shareholder democracy for public companies. Shareholders’ ability to “have their say” is exercised at shareholder meetings largely through proxy voting, which is a...more
The SEC Division of Corporation Finance recently informed public companies that it will express no views on the application of Rule 14a-8(i)(9) during the current proxy season. The Corp Fin decision leaves public companies...more
Some public companies have requested the SEC to permit exclusion of proxy access proposals by stating the shareholder proposal directly conflicts with the issuers own proposal that will be included in the proxy statement. ...more
Since our last update, the following public companies have submitted no-action letters to exclude shareholder proposals submitted by the New York City Pension Funds because the proposal will “directly conflict” with the...more
The Comptroller of the City of New York, who oversees pension funds with a combined $160 billion in assets, recently submitted proxy access shareholder proposals at 75 U.S. public companies as part of its Boardroom...more