News & Analysis as of

Proxy Statements No-Action Letters

Cooley LLP

New Corp Fin intake system for no-action requests related to shareholder proposals

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Corp Fin has announced a new intake system for requests from companies for no-action positions from the staff regarding companies’ intentions to exclude shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8. In the announcement, Corp Fin...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

SEC Proposes Amendments to the Shareholder Proposal Rules

On July 13, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), by a 3-2 vote, proposed amendments to the proxy rules that would narrow certain grounds under which companies may exclude shareholder proposals from their...more

Goodwin

ESG Shareholder Proposals Will be More Difficult to Exclude After SEC Staff Interpretive Reversal

Goodwin on

On November 3, 2021, the staff (“staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance (“Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L which reverses a series of...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Shareholder Proposal No-Action Requests in the 2021 Proxy Season: Dearth of No-Action Response Letters Leaves Companies Guessing

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

Jones Day

Court Ruling May Shift the Contours of Shareholder Proposal Litigation Under Rule 14a-8

Jones Day on

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

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Did You Remember These Developments for the 2020 SEC Reporting Season?

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Preparations for annual reporting on Form 10-K and the 2020 proxy season have begun in earnest for many companies. We have summarized certain governance and disclosure developments that should be considered in the course of...more

Perkins Coie

Preparing for the 2020 Public Company Reporting Season

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued rule updates and guidance in 2019 that are intended to simplify certain public reporting requirements, clarify the staff’s expectations with respect to no-action relief...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Corp Fin Updates Procedures for Rule 14a-8 No-Action Requests and Posts No-Action Responses Chart

On November 21, 2019, the Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provided additional detail regarding how it would process responses to Rule 14a-8 no-action requests to...more

Perkins Coie

SEC Staff Provides Additional Guidance on Shareholder Proposals

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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

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

SEC Staff Policy Change on 14a-8 Process; May Choose to Respond Orally Rather than in Writing

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC on

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

Benesch

SEC Update for Upcoming Proxy Season – Changes to Rule 14a-8 No-Action Request Response Process

Benesch on

On September 6, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) announced changes to how the Division provides responses under the Rule 14a-8 no-action request process. As...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance Revamps Administration of No-Action Requests Under Rule 14a-8 Regarding Shareholder...

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Changes May Create New Challenges for Public Companies, and Signal a Reduction of the SEC Staff’s Traditional Role As Arbiter Between Companies and Shareholders - On September 6, 2019, the SEC's Division of Corporation...more

Jones Day

Our Perspective: SEC Should Truly Take "No Action" on Rule 14a-8 Shareholder Proposal Requests

Jones Day on

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

Robins Kaplan LLP

ESG Investor Walden Scores Win on CorVel Shareholder Proposal Re LGBTQ Rights

Robins Kaplan LLP on

On June 5, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declined to issue a no-action letter to CorVel Corporation with respect to CorVel’s intention to exclude from its proxy materials a shareholder proposal regarding...more

Carlton Fields

Expect Slower SEC Processing of Investment Company Filings

Carlton Fields on

The SEC has reported to Congress that it expects the Division of Investment Management (IM) to provide comments at a slower pace during the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years....more

Foley & Lardner LLP

SEC Issues New Guidance on Shareholder Proposals

Foley & Lardner LLP on

On November 1, 2017, the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I (SLB 14I), which provides important guidance to public companies reviewing...more

Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.

Glossary of Important Securities Regulation Terms and Definitions

This Glossary is designed to provide law students taking Securities Regulation with a tool that will assist them in learning the basic language of securities law and achieve a working knowledge of the fundamental principles...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

Issuers Omit Proposals From Proxy Statements

As noted here, two issuers have omitted shareholder proposals from preliminary proxy statements where no-action letters from the SEC regarding omission of the proposals have been withdrawn. The blog suggests, within its...more

Cooley LLP

Blog: Institutional Investors Speak Out On Proxy Access And Conflicting Proposals

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Earlier this month, the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee devoted part of its agenda to the topic of proxy access and the much debated Rule 14a-8(i)(9), which permits companies to exclude shareholder proposals from their...more

Allen Matkins

SEC’s Rule 14a-8 Volte-Face Is Pointlessly Outré But It Does Have Real World Ramifications

Allen Matkins on

Readers may recall that last December Whole Foods Market, Inc. had secured the SEC staff’s concurrence in excluding a shareholder access proposal submitted by Jim McRitchie. Then, SEC Chair Mary Jo White directed the staff...more

Blank Rome LLP

Withdrawal of Whole Foods No-Action Letter Leaves a Hole in Proxy Access Proposal Defense

Blank Rome LLP on

On January 16, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that, for the 2015 proxy season, the Division of Corporation Finance will not express any views as to whether a company may exclude a shareholder...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

SEC Reverses Course on Proxy Exclusions for Certain Shareholder Proposals

Much is being made of the January 16th statement by SEC Chair Mary Jo White regarding a company’s ability to exclude a shareholder proposal from its proxy statement based on Rule 14a-8(i)(9), which allows exclusion when a...more

Allen Matkins

The SEC’s Rule 14a-8 Process Just Became Even More Pointlessly Outré

Allen Matkins on

Yesterday, Broc Romanek posted on SEC Chair Mary Jo White’s Friday surprise with respect the no-action letter request submitted by Whole Foods Market, Inc. Readers may recall that in December Whole Foods had obtained the...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

Proxy Access: Request to Reconsider Whole Foods; Another Seeks to Avoid NYC Proposal

James McRitchie was the shareholder proponent who submitted a proxy access proposal to Whole Foods. The SEC granted Whole Foods’ request to exclude the proposal. Mr. McRitchie has now requested an appeal to the full...more

Allen Matkins

This “Appeal” Of Whole Foods’ No-Action Letter Isn’t Very Appealing

Allen Matkins on

Last week, James McRitchie submitted an “appeal” of the staff’s grant of no-action advice to Whole Foods Market, Inc. As explained in a post by Broc Romanek, Whole Foods was able to obtain that staff’s concurrence in...more

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