On December 19, 2023, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) released its updates to its Proxy Voting Guidelines. Somewhat unusually, ISS made only one change to its voting recommendation policies for U.S. public...more
Given recent declines in equity value in a variety of segments of the economy (technology in particular), a number of clients have asked us what levers are available for retaining talent. While they are rare and while we...more
This White Paper highlights select recent developments in certain countries that could have implications for employee equity plans offered by multinational companies to employees in such jurisdictions. ARGENTINA - ...more
On May 31, 2019, Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a decision refusing to dismiss a stockholder's fiduciary duty claims challenging the compensation of Goldman Sachs' board of directors.1...more
The trend of including director-specific limits on the size of annual equity awards to non-employee directors under long-term incentive plans (“LTIPs”) continues to pick up steam, as evidenced by our survey of LTIPs filed...more
Public companies should consider a number of items for 2019, including recent SEC and proxy advisory developments and other perennial executive compensation considerations. Even as the US government shutdown continues to...more
Yesterday's post highlighted one company's confusion about the vote required for shareholder approval of an equity compensation plan under the California General Corporation Law. Because the GCL does not impose a specific...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
On December 13, 2017, the Delaware Supreme Court issued an opinion, In re Investors Bancorp, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, Case No. 169, holding that, except under limited circumstances, the court will not apply the...more
Earlier this month, in In re Investors Bancorp, Inc. Stockholders Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery reiterated its view that placing a meaningful limit on director equity awards to be granted under a stockholder...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
On February 28, 2017, Skadden hosted a webinar titled “Key Trends in Executive Compensation, Employment Law and Compensation Committee Practices.” The Skadden panelists were labor and employment law partner David Schwartz,...more
As the 2017 proxy season approaches, companies may be preparing to solicit shareholder approval for a new, or an amendment to an existing, equity incentive plan. In doing so, companies should keep in mind the positions of...more
Most public companies regularly submit equity benefit plans to their shareholders for approval. As a general rule, both NYSE and Nasdaq require that every new benefit plan, and any material amendment to an existing plan, be...more
As 2016 comes to an end, we are pleased to present you with our traditional End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. Like last year, we are presenting our “To Do” Lists in three separate Employee Benefits Updates. Part 1 of...more
Individuals serving on company boards of directors should carefully examine director compensation programs and decisions involving their own compensation following an April 30, 2015, ruling by the Delaware Court of Chancery....more
Keith Higgins, Director of Corp Fin, hinted that he might be giving us a welcome gift in the future: a revision of Item 10 of Schedule 14A, the proxy statement – in my view, a component of the disclosure rules that has too...more