Sky Blog
The following comes to us from Charles M. Horn, a partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP.
The enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act,” or “Dodd-Frank”) in 2010 was a watershed moment in the … Read more
As annual meeting season approaches, so too does the first deadline for companies listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (Nasdaq) to comply with amended compensation committee rules. Traditionally, evaluation of director independence of Nasdaq-listed companies differed for purposes of serving … Read more
The “European Market Infrastructure Regulation,” known as EMIR, was adopted on July 4, 2012, as the Regulation on OTC Derivatives, Central Counterparties and Trade Repositories (EU 648/2012), and took effect in all EU Member States on August 16, 2012. As … Read more
This is the heyday of institutional investor activism in proxy contests. Insurgents are running more slates and targeting larger companies. They are also enjoying a higher rate of success: 66% of proxy contexts this year have been at least partially … Read more
My forthcoming article, Irredeemably Inefficient Acts: A Threat to Markets, Firms, and the Fisc, identifies a category of acts that clearly and inevitably reduce social welfare. These acts—which I call irredeemably inefficient—have not been expressly recognized in previous … Read more
On April 1, 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) voted four to one to adopt final rules implementing an exemption from the mandatory clearing requirement (the “Clearing Mandate”) under section 2(h) of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended … Read more
One of the highest-profile provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act is Section 922. That provision provides protection and monetary awards for whistleblowers. To qualify, the whistleblower must provide information to the Securities and Exchange Commission that leads to the recovery of … Read more
“Ring-fencing” is often touted as a potential regulatory solution to problems in banking, finance, public utilities, and insurance. However, both the precise meaning of ring-fencing, as well as the nature of the problems that ring-fencing regulation purports to solve, are … Read more
In the paper, “Management Influence on Investors: Evidence from Shareholder Votes on the Frequency of Say on Pay”, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, my co-author (David Oesch of the University of St. Gallen) and I … Read more
Plaintiffs’ attorneys have continued to bring, or threaten, litigation against U.S. companies following the filing of their annual proxy statements. These complaints generally allege disclosure deficiencies in connection with the approval of equity compensation plans and/or the advisory shareholder “say-on-pay” … Read more
On February 28, I submitted a letter on Money Market Fund Reform to the Financial Stability Oversight Council in response to their November 2012 request for comments on a number of alternative proposals. I endorse the so-called “Minimum Balance at … Read more
The Dodd-Frank Act authorized the CFTC and the SEC to develop comprehensive regulations for swap transactions and security-based swaps, respectively. Considering swaps generally were unregulated before Dodd-Frank, the CFTC and the SEC have been writing for two years on a … Read more
My forthcoming article, Interbank Discipline, draws attention to the important role that banks play monitoring and disciplining other banks. To understand the significance of interbank discipline, the Article proposes a new way of thinking about market discipline more generally. … Read more
The article, The Custom-to-Failure Cycle, which I wrote with my research assistant Lucy Chang (Duke Law School class of 2012), examines how reliance on heuristic-based customs can lead to financial failures. In areas of complexity, people often rely on … Read more
Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher delivered the below remarks before the Corporate Directors Forum at the University of San Diego, San Diego, California, on January 29, 2013:
Thank you Anne [Sheehan] for your very kind introduction. I am honored to be … Read more
A panel of three judges in the D.C. Circuit stunned Washington on Friday by striking down President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB in Noel Canning v. NLRB on a basis much more sweeping than had been anticipated. The two … Read more
Many domestic and foreign companies that file periodic reports with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) are now coming to grips with three novel and highly prescriptive disclosure requirements dictated by Congress. What distinguishes these new requirements … Read more
Columbia Law School Professor Robert J. Jackson Jr. recently moderated a lively debate on financial innovation before a panel of experts including Congressman Barney Frank, The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin, Nobel Laureate Robert Solow, and Gary Gensler, chairman … Read more
My recent article published in the Stanford Law Review Securities Class Actions Against Foreign Issuers addresses the fundamental question of whether, as a matter of good policy, it is ever appropriate that a foreign issuer be subject to the U.S. … Read more
Today, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Financial Regulatory Reform Initiative working group on Capital Markets and the Volcker Rule sent a letter to the Treasury Department and the five federal financial regulators tasked with adopting Volcker Rule regulations. The letter responds … Read more
For a number of years, commentators have noted that securities “reform” legislation seems to be passed only in the wake of major stock market crashes, with this pattern dating back to the South Sea Bubble. Some have argued that this … Read more
In 2002, the UK began requiring an advisory shareholder vote on the annual executive and non-executive director compensation practices of UK-incorporated quoted companies (“UK Companies”). Eight years later, in July 2010, the US followed suit when President Obama signed into … Read more
