As discussed in our December 15, 2023 client alert, the SEC has waged an aggressive effort to enforce alleged violations of the whistleblower protection rule. On September 9, 2024, the SEC announced settled charges resulting...more
9/16/2024
/ Cease and Desist Orders ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Popular ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Rule 21F-17 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Separation Agreement ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On August, 19, 2024, the SEC announced settled charges against Carl C. Icahn and his publicly traded company, Icahn Enterprises L.P. (IEP), for failing to disclose information relating to Icahn’s pledges of IEP securities –...more
8/21/2024
/ Cease and Desist ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Collateral ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Margin Calls ,
Pledges ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Schedule 13D ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations
Public companies should take note of several recent developments, including:
..Reversal of the Pegasystems trade secrets lawsuit that nevertheless preserves guidance to take care when describing litigation as “without...more
8/21/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Form 10-Q ,
Industrial Espionage ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Assessment ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
Shareholders' Agreements ,
Trade Secrets
On July 18, 2024, District Court Judge Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York issued his 107-page opinion and order dismissing most – but not all – of the landmark allegations of the SEC against SolarWinds Corp. and...more
7/29/2024
/ Board of Directors ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Misleading Statements ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
SolarWinds
Potential regulatory uncertainty in light of Supreme Court decisions. The recent Supreme Court term produced several landmark decisions affecting administrative agencies, including...more
7/10/2024
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Insider Trading ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Ohio v Environmental Protection Agency ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
SCOTUS
As discussed in our September 1, 2021 post, the SEC brought its first “shadow insider trading” case against Matthew Panuwat, a company employee who purchased options in a competitor’s shares shortly after learning his...more
6/14/2024
/ Confidential Information ,
Corporate Governance ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Insider Trading ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Materiality ,
Misappropriation ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud
On May 21, 2024, the Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a statement providing guidance on the use of Item 1.05 of Form 8-K to disclose cybersecurity incidents....more
One of the routine duties of counsel for a public company is advising officers and directors on their trades in company stock and their SEC responsibilities when they leave. Because those discussions are routine, it may be...more
5/22/2024
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Blackout Rules ,
Board of Directors ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Officers ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Filing Requirements ,
Insider Trading ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Management ,
Rule 144 ,
Securities Regulation
As calendar-year companies prepare for upcoming quarterly reports, here are some updates and reminders...more
On March 6, 2024, a divided SEC approved climate-related disclosure rules. The new rules will require disclosure of...more
3/8/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 10-Q ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
PLSRA ,
Public Comment ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulation S-X ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
XBRL Filing Requirements
On January 25, 2024, the SEC announced the settlement of cease-and-desist proceedings against Northern Star Investment Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The SEC alleged that the company failed to...more
As companies prepare for the upcoming proxy and annual report season, the following supplements the list of key items to consider contained in our October 2, 2023 post...more
In light of new disclosure rules as well as investor interest, companies may wish to modify their D&O Questionnaires for the 2024 proxy season to address certain hot topics...more
As companies prepare for next proxy season, they should review SEC staff guidance on the pay vs. performance table. In addition to recent staff interpretations, as discussed in our October 2, 2023 post and February 22, 2023...more
10/17/2023
/ Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EBITDA ,
Executive Compensation ,
Financial Reporting ,
GAAP ,
Pay Ratio ,
Pay-for-Performance ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Total Shareholder Return (TSR)
As companies look ahead to the upcoming proxy and annual report season, the SEC has generated a number of new items to add to your compliance checklist – in addition to those covered in last year's list. Those items, along...more
10/3/2023
/ Annual Reports ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
CDIs ,
Clawbacks ,
Climate Change ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Equity Compensation ,
Financial Restatements ,
GAAP ,
Insider Trading ,
Non-GAAP Financial Measures ,
Performance Incentives ,
Proxy Season ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Related Parties ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
Ukraine ,
XBRL Filing Requirements
A recent court case highlights the potential pitfalls for public companies engaging in informal communications with analysts. The court found that paraphrased statements attributed to an officer in an analyst’s report can be...more
A flurry of recent lawsuits in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June decision on affirmative action have further muddied the waters for public companies trying to thread their way through competing interests....more
8/16/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Annual Reports ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Discrimination ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Kellogg Company ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reverse Discrimination ,
Risk Mitigation ,
SCOTUS ,
Shareholder Activism ,
Shareholders ,
Target
What happened -
A public company and its CEO lost motions to dismiss securities fraud claims based on:
..Statements in 10-Qs and 10-Ks that a competitor’s trade secrets lawsuit was “without merit”
..Assurances in...more
A divided SEC on July 26, 2023 approved new requirements for reporting of material cybersecurity incidents in real-time current reports on Form 8-K or 6-K and disclosure of cybersecurity risk management, strategy and...more
7/28/2023
/ Annual Reports ,
Compliance ,
Compliance Dates ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 20-F ,
Form 8-K ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
Over the past few years, the SEC has renewed its focus on public company failures to disclose perquisites and related person transactions. As discussed under “Deeper Dive” below, most of the cases involve companies that...more
As we near June 30, 2023, companies are advised to get a jump start on disclosure changes and possible updates to upcoming Form 10-Qs (or Form 10-Ks in the case of non-calendar year companies). The SEC recently updated the...more
6/16/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Clawbacks ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Officers ,
Directors ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Executive Compensation ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 10-Q ,
Form 20-F ,
Form 8-K ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Market Conditions ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Say-on-Pay ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Stock Repurchases ,
Stock Trades
What happened -
On May 3, 2023, a divided SEC adopted rule amendments that significantly increase company disclosures about their share repurchases. The changes will require companies to...more
5/5/2023
/ Amended Rules ,
Compliance ,
Compliance Dates ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Required Forms ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Stock Repurchases ,
Stock Trades
New NYSE and Nasdaq Rule Deadline -
As discussed in our February 27, 2023 post, the NYSE and Nasdaq previously issued their proposed listing rules (the “Proposed Listing Rules”) mandating that most companies with listed...more
What happened -
On February 22, both the NYSE and Nasdaq posted their proposals for new listing rules in response to the SEC’s final clawback rules. The proposals would establish the following compliance schedule...more
New deadlines and obligations for insiders and corporate secretaries are coming up as result of rule changes, including the following:
February 27, 2023 - Form 4 reporting for gifts -
February 27, 2023 is the...more