On February 27, 2026, the SEC adopted final amendments to its rules and forms under the Exchange Act to implement the HFIA Act. As we discussed in our December 2025 alert, the HFIA Act was enacted on December 18, 2025, as...more
It started with a routine task: a mid-sized publicly traded company was preparing a quarterly earnings call. An internal team, aiming to streamline the chief executive officer’s (CEO) talking points, employed an artificial...more
As the 2026 proxy season prepares to go into full swing, significant structural shifts are underway in the proxy voting ecosystem. Regulatory scrutiny, evolving investor stewardship frameworks and innovations in retail voting...more
In a precedent-setting derivative decision, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a board of directors’ and senior officers’ failure to respond in good faith to clear red flags of workplace sexual misconduct may give rise...more
In a presidential memorandum issued January 7, President Trump announced the United States will begin executive proceedings to withdraw from a historic number of international organizations, conventions and treaties,...more
The 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) ended on November 22, 2025. Among other things, the package of decisions reflected in the Belém Political Package brings renewed focus on scaling up climate finance...more
Starting on March 18, 2026, any executive officer or director of any “foreign private issuer”i (FPI) that has a class of equity securities registered under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the...more
On December 11, 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order entitled Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors (the “Order”). The Order directs several federal agencies,...more
12/23/2025
/ Corporate Governance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Adviser ,
Popular ,
Proxy Advisors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass Lewis have released their 2026 Benchmark Proxy Voting Policy updates, introducing changes that will impact governance, compensation and shareholder-proposal evaluations...more
On November 18, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted a partial injunction blocking enforcement of California’s climate-related financial risk disclosure law (SB 261). Inaugural reports under SB 261...more
On November 17, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance announced that it will largely stop issuing staff responses to Rule 14a-8 no-action requests for the 2025–26 proxy...more
In a move that could reshape the proxy voting landscape, Glass Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) has announced that it will discontinue its decades-old practice of issuing a single, “house view” recommendation on how institutional...more
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 2337 (SB 2337) one day before the bill’s effective date. The bill would have regulated proxy advisory firms...more
Akin’s Speaking Sustainability newsletter provides a monthly digest of key news items and other relevant information on significant legal and regulatory developments in the continuum of sustainability issues, including...more
Glass Lewis, a leading proxy advisory firm, recently released a preview of changes to its pay-for-performance model that will take effect for the 2026 proxy season. Glass Lewis’ announcement, which is modest in terms of...more
In a widely anticipated move, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it will no longer defend the agency’s climate disclosure rule issued during the Biden administration. The disclosure rule...more
3/28/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Final Rules ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On March 20, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff issued a set of Compliance & Disclosure Interpretations (C&DIs). In particular, SEC staff revised or withdrew several C&DIs to allow all Form S-3s,...more
On March 12, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Division of Corporation Finance (SEC Staff) published new and revised Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DIs) regarding private offering...more
3/17/2025
/ Accredited Investors ,
Capital Markets ,
Compliance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
Private Equity Funds ,
Regulation D ,
Safe Harbors ,
Securities Act ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
On March 6, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published (1) a revised Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation (C&DI) regarding lock-up agreements in business combinations and (2) five new C&DIs...more
In March 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it is expanding the accommodations available for issuers that submit draft registration statements for nonpublic review. The SEC’s Division of...more
Earlier this week, Mark Uyeda, the Acting Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), began the process of unwinding that agency’s final climate disclosure rule enacted during the Biden administration. In a...more
On February 11, 2025, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced that it is suspending the consideration of diversity factors when making voting recommendations for directors at U.S. public companies. ISS’s press...more
2/13/2025
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Executive Orders ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholder Meetings ,
Shareholders ,
Trump Administration ,
Voting Rights
As companies begin preparing for the 2025 proxy season, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the leading providers of corporate governance solutions and proxy advisory services, recently issued...more
On December 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled that The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (Nasdaq) cannot enforce previously adopted listing rules requiring Nasdaq-listed companies to have...more
Key topics in Akin’s July 2024 Sustainability/ESG Policy and Regulatory Update include: Updated Assessment of SFDR by EU Regulators: The European Supervisory Authorities have proposed changes to the Sustainable Finance...more
8/2/2024
/ Corporate Governance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Products ,
Greenwashing ,
NRDC ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SFDR ,
Sustainability ,
UK