Daily Compliance News: April 24, 2025, The Made in Malaysia Edition
Innovation in Compliance - Key Board Issues Going Forward with Christina Bresani
This Week in FCPA-Episode 77, the Home for the Holidays Edition
Preparing a Company to Deal With Activist Investors
Why Every Day Is Proxy Season for Public Companies
On February 12, 2025, the Division of Corporate Finance (the “Staff”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued new guidance on Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposals, which comes one day after the Staff...more
2024 was a prolific year for activists, with 243 campaigns launched globally – the highest number since 2018. US activity was up modestly, and a busy year in Asia offset a quieter year in Europe. With the 2025 proxy season in...more
Public companies always have an abundance of priorities to address, and defending against shareholder activism is increasingly at the top of the agenda. Across industries and market caps, today's activists are more aggressive...more
Corporate crises happen—and that means we have to plan for them. While it isn’t practical to prepare for every possible corporate crisis, there are steps that boards and management teams can take to be better prepared. In...more
U.S. activism remained elevated through the third quarter of 2024, with board refreshment a consistent demand by activists year after year. Central to the activists’ demands for board refreshment is director tenure....more
SEC Penalizes Director for Misleading D&O Questionnaire Response - The SEC recently brought an enforcement action against a director for causing violations of the proxy rules by failing to disclose a close personal...more
A recent monumental decision of the Delaware Supreme Court (Court), dubbed a “first-of-it-kind” ruling by Bloomberg Law, provides clarity for both public companies looking to amend their bylaws and shareholder activists who...more
The title of PwC’s new 2024 Corporate Directors’ Survey, Uncertainty and transformation in the modern boardroom, might clue you in to one of its themes: uncertainty—anxiety?—arising out of the looming election. According...more
Fall is fast approaching, so most major US public companies have held their 2024 annual meetings. But, while temperatures are sure to cool in the coming months, the same can no longer be said for the shareholder activism...more
On July 17, 2024, Delaware Gov. John Carney signed into law significant amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), which will become effective on August 1, 2024. The amendments were articulated in Delaware...more
In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, David Teigman, partner in the Tax Department and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group, Josh Apfelroth, partner in the Private Equity and Mergers &...more
The oversight obligations of boards continue to expand. Recent enforcement actions and new laws in areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and supply chains create new challenges for boards, as we explain in this...more
Activist shareholders had a busy 2023: The incidence of activist campaigns in Europe soared by almost 70% compared to 2022, according to data compiled by Skadden and Activistmonitor. As we described in a previous issue of The...more
Key Points - - The number of activist campaigns launched against European companies rose again in 2023, with a new focus on German targets. - Many activists surveyed believe that France offers them good opportunities. -...more
The world of corporate shareholder activism is poised for significant changes and challenges. Activist shareholders have been a driving force in shaping the corporate landscape, pushing for reforms and steering companies...more
Hi In “a tale of wins and losses on both sides,” the Delaware Court of Chancery reiterated that advance notice bylaws adopted amid an approaching proxy contest are reviewed through the lens of enhanced judicial scrutiny to...more
The High Court has ordered that ClientEarth pay Shell’s costs in connection with all aspects of ClientEarth’s unsuccessful application for permission to continue a derivative claim against Shell and its directors. This is a...more
A Q&A guide to the use of shareholder activism in Canada. The Q&A gives a high-level overview of the use and goals of shareholder activism, the regulation of shareholder activism, and the strategies and tools used by...more
Post De-SPAC public companies saw an unprecedented number of shareholder activism campaigns during the 2021 and 2022 proxy seasons. The vast majority of these campaigns took the form of short attacks and proxy fights against...more
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board approved investment guidelines that would have the Board vote against directors of companies in which the Board invests...more
Alston & Bird will host this live seminar from our Atlanta office in addition to a live webcast. Learn about key developments and issues facing companies and investors and what you need to do to prepare for the 2022 proxy...more
The Background: The Delaware Chancery Court held that a board of directors breached its fiduciary duties in adopting a shareholder rights plan, or "poison pill," with an unprecedented combination of "extreme" features,...more
On February 26, 2021, Vice Chancellor Kathaleen S. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery permanently enjoined a stockholder rights plan — or so-called “poison pill” — with a 5% trigger that The Williams Companies, Inc....more
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is affecting all aspects of our clients' businesses, not to mention their personal lives. We are fielding numerous legal and practical questions in many different substantive areas and will...more
In a previous blog post, we discussed the Delaware Chancery Court’s decision in Saba Capital Master Fund, Ltd. v. Blackrock Credit Allocation Income Trust and its relevance to the interpretation of advance notice bylaw...more