Performance Based Equity Compensation
Corcoran: Infighting on Compensation Costs BigLaw Time and Money
The Delaware Chancery Court invalidated a substantial equity award to Elon Musk – the largest in history. It applied the entire fairness test instead of the more deferential business judgment rule, finding that Musk...more
On January 30, 2024, the Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery struck down the $55.8 billion compensation plan that Tesla, Inc.’s board of directors had granted to Tesla’s well-known CEO, Elon Musk, finding that the...more
Overview of Committee Member Responsibilities - Compensation committee (Committee) members’ duties and responsibilities generally are outlined in the Committee’s organizational charter approved by the board of directors...more
Today's post continues the discussion of the SEC's recent adoption of rules requiring the securities exchanges to adopt listing standards requiring listed companies to develop and implement policies providing for the recovery...more
[co-authors: Timothy Cotter and Kathryn Hastings, SullivanCotter; David Jarrard, Jarrard Inc.; Ken Kaufman and Andrew Majka, KaufmanHall; Zachary Morfin, PhD., and David Nygren, PhD., Nygren Consulting; Scott Steffens, Grant...more
The duties imposed on compensation committees of publicly traded companies have evolved and grown over time. This seventh edition of the Compensation Committee Handbook from the lawyers of the Executive Compensation and...more
Perhaps during the shutdown, when you’re watching more TV than you might like to admit, you’ve seen some new commercials a bit like this: a happy face-masked employee on the line or in a lab displaying all the sanitizing and...more
A compensation committee is best served when it makes executive compensation decisions in the boardroom informed by both its compensation consultant’s benchmarking and peer group data and its legal advisor’s pro forma proxy...more
Compensation Committees are addressing whether compensation should be adjusted to reflect the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on companies’ businesses and how to correlate executive compensation with changing...more
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, U.S. public company compensation committees face unique challenges as they focus on retaining and appropriately incentivizing employees while evaluating the impact of the pandemic...more
This client alert addresses certain complex issues facing public company compensation committees as companies are adapting to the economic impact of COVID-19. We also point out the restrictions placed on executive...more
As discussed in our March 20, 2020, client alert “Thoughts for Boards of Directors on the COVID-19 Crisis,” COVID-19 is testing the oversight skills of boards of directors as companies come to terms with the new normal in the...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant disruption in the financial performance of businesses across the globe, creating real challenges for compensation programs maintained by both public and private U.S. companies....more
During this webinar, attorneys Doug Currier and Scott Connolly discussed best practices for putting in place effective executive employment agreements, including inbound agreements and separation agreements. Topics discussed...more
The new priorities for tax-exempt organization compensation committees in 2020 primarily fall into four key areas: remaining market competitive for key leaders, succession planning, evolution of the compensation committee to...more
Skadden’s Executive Compensation and Benefits Group is pleased to provide you with its 2020 Compensation Committee Handbook. This edition reflects updates in applicable law and practices, including developments in director...more
The Delaware Chancery Court rejected an attempt by Tesla’s Board of Directors to dismiss a challenge to CEO Elon Musk’s “extraordinary” 2018 compensation package. Because Musk is also Tesla’s controlling stockholder, the...more
On February 5, 2019, Skadden hosted the webinar “Key Trends in Executive Compensation, Employment Law and Compensation Committee Practices.” The panelists were David Schwartz, Skadden’s global head of Labor and Employment...more
On December 14, 2018, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) issued updated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) related to its U.S. Compensation Policies effective for shareholder meetings occurring on or after February 1,...more
The duties imposed on compensation committees of publicly traded companies have evolved and grown over time. The fifth edition of the Compensation Committee Handbook, authored by our Executive Compensation and Benefits Group,...more
New SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr. (sworn in last January) delivered an interesting speech last week at the Center for American Progress highlighting an apparent connection between corporate stock buybacks and insider...more
Compensation-related litigation and threats of litigation continued to significantly impact public companies in 2017. These companies should be mindful of issues that were raised in recent litigation: proxy disclosure,...more
Human nature being what it is, the law, in its wisdom, does not presume that directors will be competent judges of the fair treatment of their company where fairness must be at their own personal expense. According to the...more
As public companies continue to prepare for the 2017 proxy season, we wanted to provide a final reminder of an executive compensation related item that might require shareholder approval in 2017. As reported in Part 1 of our...more
As discussed in a PubCo post last week, say on pay has had some surprising consequences. While there hasn’t been much impact on the levels of executive pay, according to this paper, one group that have experienced some impact...more