Efforts to increase diversity at the top of public companies remain at the forefront of corporate consciousness and governance. As we have previously reported , stakeholder interest in diversified leadership has led to a...more
On May 13, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, issued a verdict following a bench trial that effectively struck down SB 826, a California statute requiring the boards of public corporations based in the...more
On April 1, 2022, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, granted a summary judgment motion that effectively struck down AB 979, a California statute requiring the boards of public corporations based in the...more
As noted in previous client alerts (including here), boardroom diversity continues to be an increasing focus of stakeholders ranging from legislators to institutional investors to retail stockholders. In recent years, their...more
In a prior alert, we noted that a number of shareholder lawsuits were brought during 2020 in which large corporations and their directors were accused of fiduciary breaches and securities law violations tied to the alleged...more
3/26/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Corporate Governance ,
Derivative Complaint ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Facebook ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Pleading Standards ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities Violations ,
Shareholders
On Dec. 22, 2020, the Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (Staff) issued CF Disclosure Guidance: Topic 11 – Special Purpose Acquisition Companies to provide its views about certain disclosure considerations for...more
On Nov. 19, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments to the disclosure rules affecting Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and related financial disclosures. ...more
Recent events have brought renewed attention to the push for greater diversity in the boardroom. In this alert, we discuss several developments highlighting the need for public company directors to remain focused on diversity...more
10/26/2020
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Gender Equity ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities Violations ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Woman Board Members
On Sept. 21, 2020, SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) posted a Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation (CDI) regarding restrictions on Form S-3 eligibility for private companies that go public via merger into a...more
On March 4, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) announced that it is providing conditional regulatory relief for certain publicly traded company filing obligations under the federal securities law in...more
3/5/2020
/ Annual Reports ,
Best Practices ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Filing Requirements ,
Form S-3 ,
Form S-8 ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Public Health ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Quarterly Report ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Relief Measures ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On Feb. 19, 2020, the SEC announced charges against Diageo plc, an alcoholic beverages company, arising out of its failure to make required disclosures of known trends with respect to alleged unsustainable overshipments of...more
2/27/2020
/ Beverage Manufacturers ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Distributors ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Statements ,
Inventory ,
MD&A Statements ,
Overstatement of Basis ,
Penalties ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Supply and Demand ,
Target Amounts ,
Wine & Alcohol
On Jan. 30, 2020, the SEC proposed amendments to modernize Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) financial disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K....more
2/5/2020
/ Corporate Governance ,
Deregulation ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Statements ,
MD&A Statements ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
On Dec. 19, 2019, the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC updated its guidance with respect to the SEC’s procedures for confidential treatment applications (CTAs). In April 2019, the SEC adopted a streamlined procedure...more
1/3/2020
/ Confidential Information ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EDGAR ,
Exemptions ,
Filing Requirements ,
FOIA ,
New Guidance ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Redacted Documents ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
In its first fee rate advisory for fiscal year 2020, the SEC announced that filing fees applicable to securities registrations by public companies and other issuers will be increased by 7.1%: from $121.20 to $129.80 per...more
9/6/2019
/ Corporate Issuers ,
Filing Fees ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Proxy Solicitations ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Stock Repurchases
On Aug. 20, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had charged public pharmaceutical company TherapeuticsMD, Inc. for violations of Regulation FD and Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act related to...more
8/26/2019
/ Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FDA Approval ,
Financial Markets ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Form 8-K ,
Insider Trading ,
Non-Public Information ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation FD ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Stock Prices
As reported in a press release issued by the Securities and Exchange Comission (the SEC) on Aug. 8, 2019, the SEC voted to propose amendments to modernize Regulation S-K disclosures, in particular, Item 101(a) (the...more
On May 9, 2019, the SEC proposed amendments to the accelerated filer and large accelerated filer definitions under the Exchange Act....more
On March 20, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) voted to adopt amendments to modernize and simplify disclosure requirements for public companies, investment advisers and investment companies. ...more
3/25/2019
/ Confidential Information ,
Deregulation ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EDGAR ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Companies ,
New Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The tax reform signed into law by President Trump on Dec. 22 (the Tax Act) presents public companies with several accounting and disclosure challenges. Although companies are still evaluating how they will be affected by the...more
1/2/2018
/ Corporate Taxes ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Statements ,
Form 8-K ,
Income Taxes ,
New Legislation ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Deductions ,
Tax Planning ,
Tax Rates ,
Tax Reform ,
Trump Administration