What Does The SEC Approved NASDAQ Diversity Proposal Mean For Boards?
Financing Challenges for Small Cap Companies
A federal circuit court recently vacated a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order approving Nasdaq’s diversity rule for boards of directors of public companies....more
On December 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in a 9-8 en banc decision, vacated the approval of Nasdaq's board diversity rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The court held that the...more
On December 11, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in a lengthy opinion, vacated the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of Nasdaq’s board diversity rules in Alliance for Fair...more
In a 9-8 en banc decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a three-judge panel decision and invalidated the Nasdaq Board Diversity Rule, Rule 506, that had been approved by the Securities and...more
On December 11, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) order approving The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC’s (Nasdaq) board diversity rules, holding that the...more
On December 11, 2024, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC vacating the SEC’s approval of Nasdaq’s board diversity rules. The rules required tabular...more
In an en banc decision filed on December 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Fifth Circuit) vacated the 2021 approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of rules adopted by The Nasdaq...more
(This post updates my post of December 12 to add further discussion of the decision.) - In August 2021, the SEC approved a Nasdaq proposal for new listing rules regarding board diversity and disclosure, accompanied by a...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
In August 2021, the SEC approved new board diversity rules requiring Nasdaq-listed companies (i) to include a board diversity matrix in their proxy statement or on their website and (ii) to disclose whether they have one...more
On December 11, in a 9-8 ruling, the Fifth Circuit invalidated the SEC’s approval of the Nasdaq board diversity rule in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC. Invoking the “major questions” doctrine, the court ruled the...more
On July 25, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that at least part of the basis for the currently pending legal attack on the Nasdaq’s proposed...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will likely weigh in soon on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of Nasdaq’s board diversity rule that will require listed companies to disclose...more
The Fifth Circuit has vacated the opinion we discussed in our Oct. 30, 2023, client alert Diversity in the Boardroom: Fifth Circuit Rejects Challenge to the SEC Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules; En Banc Petition Quickly Filed and...more
On October 18, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC, 5th Cir., No. 21-60626 upheld Nasdaq’s board diversity rule, which encourages greater board...more
On October 25, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Fifth Circuit”) upheld the Nasdaq board diversity rule in the face of challenges that (among other things) the rule attempted to improperly and...more
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Nasdaq's board diversity rule, which the SEC first approved in August 2021 and was then challenged as unconstitutionally discriminatory and an improper...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied review of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of proposed rules promulgated by the Nasdaq Stock Market concerning the diversity of directors on...more
On Monday, August 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral argument on a challenge to the Nasdaq Board Diversity Rule (the “Rule”). The Rule requires Nasdaq-listed companies to publicly disclose Board...more
The SEC was once again before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Aug. 29, 2022, this time in connection with the agency's approval of the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC's (Nasdaq) Board Diversity Rule (Rule). The...more
The rules of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq) require that a majority of a listed company’s board of directors (board) must be comprised of “independent directors” and that vital board...more
It should hardly come as a surprise to anyone that the new Nasdaq board diversity rule (see this PubCo post) would be challenged in the courts. The rule was approved by the SEC on Friday, August 6. On Monday. August 9, the...more
Professor Stephen Bainbridge writes that the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment has filed a petition for review with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging Nasdaq's board diversity rule. Some readers may be...more
The House Committee on Financial Services met virtually on April 20, 2021 to consider legislation that, among other things, would require public companies to annually disclose the voluntarily, self-identified gender, race,...more
On February 12, 2021, the Republican members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs wrote a letter to the Acting Chair of the SEC bashing a recently proposed rule of Nasdaq that would promote corporate...more