What’s the latest on SB 313, the proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law largely designed to address the outcome of the decision in West Palm Beach Firefighters’ Pension Fund v. Moelis & Company? That case...more
In January, ExxonMobil filed a lawsuit against Arjuna Capital, LLC and Follow This, the two proponents of a climate-related shareholder proposal submitted to Exxon, seeking a declaratory judgment that it may exclude their...more
Controversy notwithstanding, the proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law in Senate Bill 313 have reportedly “sailed through” the Delaware Senate and are scheduled to move to the Delaware House this week....more
Last month, this PubCo post discussed the recent controversy over proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law. As noted in the post, the Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar...more
When we last checked in on the ExxonMobil litigation against Arjuna Capital, LLC and Follow This—in which Exxon sought a declaratory judgment that it may exclude the two defendants’ proposal from its 2024 annual meeting proxy...more
Recently, the Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association proposed some amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law, as they do with some regularity. (See this Alert from the Delaware...more
You may recall that, in January, ExxonMobil filed a lawsuit against Arjuna Capital, LLC and Follow This, the two proponents of a climate-related shareholder proposal submitted to Exxon, seeking a declaratory judgment that it...more
Nasdaq has proposed to modify some of its corporate governance rules—specifically Rules 5605, 5615 and 5810—to modify the phase-in schedules for the independent director and committee requirements in connection with IPOs,...more
Not so long ago, zeal for corporate action on ESG was skyrocketing. Now? Not so much. What happened? Many have attributed the decline in appetite for ESG to the politicization of ESG and particularly to ESG backlash. This...more
In an article in the Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, “Minutes Are Worth the Minutes: Good Documentation Practices Improve Board Deliberations and Reduce Regulatory and Litigation Risk,” former Chief Justice of...more
In In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, the Delaware Supreme Court answered some important questions about the standard of review applicable to conflicted transactions under Delaware law. The first question relates...more
There is a lot going on at companies, and—you may be surprised to hear—not all of it is new regulation. There are new technologies, such as AI, global political instability and social change, not to mention ESG and...more
We hear a lot about companies taking public positions on political issues—as well as the backlash that many experience as a result. Whether you think corporate participation in politics is a good thing or a bad thing, you...more
As you know, the shareholder primacy theory is widely attributed to the Chicago school of economists, beginning in the 1970s, with economist Milton Friedman famously arguing that the only “social responsibility of business is...more
You remember that, in January, ExxonMobil filed a lawsuit against Arjuna Capital, LLC and Follow This, two proponents of a climate-related shareholder proposal submitted to Exxon, seeking a declaratory judgment that it may...more
Starting off the new year, consultant Semler Brossy’s latest report analyzes proxy results for 2023 among the S&P 500 and the Russell 3000, including votes on say on pay, environmental and social shareholder proposals,...more
Back in 2014, a few companies, facing shareholder proposals from the prolific shareholder-proposal activist, John Chevedden, and his associates, adopted a “direct-to-court” strategy, bypassing the standard SEC no-action...more
As discussed in this article from the WSJ, The Latest Dirty Word in Corporate America: ESG, ESG backlash is driving many company executives to drop any reference to “ESG” and instead use terms like “sustainability” or...more
Happy new year! In September last year, the SEC posted a new NYSE proposed rule change that would “modify the circumstances under which a listed company must obtain shareholder approval of a sale of securities to a...more
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
On Friday last week, the SEC posted a new NYSE proposed rule change that would “modify the circumstances under which a listed company must obtain shareholder approval of a sale of securities to a substantial security holder,”...more
Alliance Advisors, a proxy solicitation and corporate advisory firm, has posted its 2023 Proxy Season Preview, an analysis of trends from the 2023 proxy season. Its principal message: ESG proposals saw sagging results again...more
“ESG month” may not be exactly what you think. It’s the moniker, according to Politico, ascribed to the plan of the House Financial Services Committee, reflected in this interim report from its ESG Working Group, “to spend...more
On Wednesday, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda spoke to the Society for Corporate Governance 2023 National Conference on the topic of shareholder proposals under rule 14a-8, a topic on which, historically, the commissioners’...more
You might recall that this past proxy season witnessed a significant number of shareholder proposals related to ESG—from both sides of the aisle. (See this PubCo post.) One of those proposals was submitted by the National...more