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Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the leading proxy voting advisory firms in the United States, have announced updates and clarifications for their voting guidelines for the U.S. market for the 2024...more
On December 19, 2023, ISS Governance announced updates to its 2024 benchmark proxy voting policies. The full text of the updated benchmark policies for 2024 should be available later this month and will generally apply to...more
On November 21, 2023, Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) Governance announced proposed changes to its benchmark voting policy for 2024 (the “Proposed Changes”). To ensure that a broad range of perspectives is...more
As we enter the 2023 proxy season, there are a number of new regulatory requirements, both technical and substantive, that have been implemented, and many more on the horizon. For example, many companies will need to comply...more
Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC ("Glass Lewis"), the two major proxy advisory firms, recently issued their updated proxy voting guidelines for the 2023 proxy season. These policy updates...more
On November 17, 2022, Glass Lewis released its 2023 U.S. Policy Guidelines (U.S. Guidelines) and its 2023 ESG Initiatives Policy Guidelines (ESG Guidelines), effective for shareholder meetings on or after January 1, 2023. On...more
In the past few weeks, both major proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC ("Glass Lewis"), have issued their updated proxy voting guidelines for the 2022 proxy season. These...more
In a win for activist shareholders, on November 17, 2021, the SEC voted to adopt final rules requiring the use in contested director elections of domestic issuers of "universal proxy cards," or proxy cards naming all director...more
Yesterday the SEC approved new proxy rules requiring the use of universal proxy cards by management and shareholders soliciting proxy votes for their candidates in non-exempt director election contests, as well as mandating...more
As expected, the SEC has adopted final rules requiring the use of universal proxy cards in shareholder meetings involving non-exempt contested director elections held after August 31, 2022. In addition, certain amendments...more
On Monday, John Jenkins at Deallawyers.com wrote about a recent Delaware Court of Chancery decision finding that as alleged, "the Director Defendants’ decisions to delegate the Proxy to the Conflicted Officer Defendants and...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recently provided guidance outlining its approach to proxy voting advice for the 2021 proxy season. ISS adopted updates to its Benchmark Proxy Voting Guidelines (Voting Policy),...more
On October 14, 2020, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) published for comment its proposed voting policy changes for the 2021 proxy season. If adopted, these policy changes would generally apply to meetings that...more
Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass, Lewis & Co. released revised proxy voting guidelines in light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This On the Subject details key implications for the 2020 proxy season...more
The nation’s largest shareholder advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”), recently filed suit against the SEC over new guidelines meant to give investors more transparency into how proxy advisory firms...more
In preparation for the upcoming proxy season, issuers should familiarize themselves with the Canadian proxy voting guidelines recently published by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Co. (Glass...more
Glass Lewis recently posted its comprehensive 2020 voting guidelines, which are summarized on the first page of the 2020 voting guidelines as well as on the Glass Lewis blog. Among other things, the 2020 voting guidelines...more
On October 16 the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14K (CF) (SLB 14K) to provide updated guidance on the application of the "ordinary business" exception to a company's obligation under...more
In two related releases issued on August 21, the SEC updated its guidance and interpretations to heighten the scrutiny given to the voting recommendations made by proxy advisory firms such as Institutional Shareholder...more
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC both recently issued their annual proxy voting guideline updates. As revised, these guidelines have important implications for companies preparing for the...more
ISS recently announced the 2019 updates to its proxy voting policies, which can be found here and which will be applied to annual meetings held on or after February 1, 2019. Among the various updates provided by ISS, the...more
Updates for the 2019 proxy voting guidelines by Institutional Shareholder Services include guidance on board gender diversity and attendance, board-sponsored proposals, and director performance evaluations....more
Earlier this week, proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) launched its Annual Policy Survey, which solicits responses from institutional investors, companies, corporate directors and other market...more
On May 11, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance (the “Division”) released new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“C&DIs”) comprising the Division’s new interpretations of the...more
New ISS Help Center - On April 9, 2018, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) launched a new online communications portal, the ISS Help Center, to provide a simplified interface for submitting questions to ISS...more