The Cost of Control: Board Structure and Firm Value in Controlled Companies

By Dain C. Donelson, Jennifer Glenn and Christopher G. Yust May 28, 2025 by renholding

Controlled companies – public firms where an individual, group, or another company holds majority voting power – make up a significant and growing share of the U.S. public market, accounting for over $2.2 trillion in 2019 alone. Despite their scale, …

Skadden Offers a Review of ESG in 2024 and Key Trends for 2025

By Raquel Fox, Marc S. Gerber, Simon Toms, Caroline S. Kim and Justin Lau January 9, 2025 by renholding

ESG: 2024 Sees Greater Implementation in Europe and Increasing Divergence With the US

In this article, we reflect on key trends in ESG over the second half of 2024 and look ahead at trends that may emerge in 2025.

We …

Stock Exchange Rulemaking After the Fifth Circuit’s AFBR Decision

By James Fallows Tierney January 7, 2025 by renholding

Securities law often relies on stock exchanges and other self-regulatory organizations (SROs) to create rules that structure markets. The SEC reviews and must approve these rules if the agency finds they meet certain statutory requirements. SROs file over a thousand

…

Skadden Discusses Fifth Circuit Decision Vacating Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules

By Brian V. Breheny, Raquel Fox, David E. Schwartz, Caroline S. Kim and Sidney E. Morales Parodie December 18, 2024 by renholding

On December 11, 2024, in a 9-8 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that in approving the Nasdaq Stock Market’s (Nasdaq) board diversity rules (the Rules), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had …

How Comply-or-Explain Disclosure Regulation Can Improve Corporate Governance and Gender Equality

By Aaron A. Dhir, Sarah Kaplan and Maria Arabella Robles October 8, 2024 by renholding

In 2020, the Nasdaq stock market filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking permission to adopt a board diversity-related disclosure requirement for its listed companies. In 2021, the SEC approved the proposal, making Nasdaq the most …

How Board Independence Can Affect Employee Safety and Health

By Lixiong Guo and Zhiyan Wang September 30, 2024 by renholding

Since the 1990s, regulatory reforms worldwide have significantly increased the independence of corporate boards. By 2023, nearly all of the top 50 equity markets had implemented minimum requirements for board or board committee independence. While extensive literature highlights the benefits …

Queers, Closets, and Corporate Governance

By Darren Rosenblum August 21, 2024 by renholding

Over the past couple of decades, we’ve witnessed enormous progress on LGBTQ+ issues. As a result, the closet remains largely off people’s radar – but for the generation of those who occupy corporate leadership positions, it’s very much a live …

Davis Polk Discusses Dodd-Frank Clawback Rules’ Application to Subsidiary Issuers, Guarantors

By Jennifer S. Conway, Kyoko Takahashi Lin, Michael Kaplan, Joseph A. Hall and Ning Chiu February 5, 2024 by renholding

Each subsidiary issuing or guaranteeing a public company’s listed debt securities is itself subject to the clawback rules recently adopted by the NYSE and Nasdaq.

In October 2022, the SEC adopted the final clawback rule mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act …

Debevoise & Plimpton Discusses Fifth Circuit Decision to Uphold Nasdaq Board Diversity Rule

By Matthew E. Kaplan, William D. Regner, Simone S. Hicks, Ashley Yoon and Andrew Hong October 31, 2023 by renholding

On October 18, 2023, the Fifth Circuit, in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC, upheld Nasdaq’s board diversity rule. [1]

The rule, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in August 2021, requires Nasdaq-listed companies to disclose board-level …

Do Dual-Class Structures Help Stock Markets Attract Listings?

By Fa Chen October 30, 2023 by renholding

Financial globalization has allowed issuers more freedom to shop among jurisdictions and thus intensified stock market competition. Against this backdrop, the Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and UK stock markets have accepted the dual-class share structure (DCSS). While empirical legal studies …

What NASDAQ Disclosures Reveal About LGBTQ+ Representation and Overall Diversity in the Boardroom

By Fabrice Houdart October 13, 2023 by renholding

A ground-breaking study provides new data about diversity on the boards of directors of 3,031 companies (representing 2,503 U.S. and 528 foreign firms) listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The demographic information in the study is based on voluntary self-identification …

Paul Weiss Discusses SEC’s New Clawback Listing Standards

By Lawrence I. Witdorchic, Jean M. McLoughlin, Cindy Akard, Raphael M. Russo and Christodoulos Kaoutzanis June 14, 2023 by renholding

The SEC has approved the clawback listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. As noted previously, the clawback listing standards will take effect on October 2, 2023, and listed companies will have until December 1, 2023 to …

Debevoise Discusses Super Voting Preferred Stock

By Eric T. Juergens, Maeve O'Connor, Benjamin R. Pedersen, William D. Regner and Thomas Rose April 12, 2023 by renholding

A public company’s certificate of incorporation generally grants the board of directors authority to issue “blank check” preferred stock up to the number authorized in the certificate of incorporation, on terms to be determined by the board. Recently, a number …

Davis Polk Discusses NYSE and Nasdaq Clawback Rule Proposal

By Kyoko Takahashi Lin and Ning Chiu March 2, 2023 by renholding

On February 22, 2023, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market released their respective versions of a proposed rule that implements the SEC’s clawback rule mandated by Section 954 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The SEC’s final rule, …

Olshan Discusses FINRA, Stock Exchange Crack Down on Small-Cap IPO “Ramp and Dump” Schemes

By Spencer G. Feldman November 29, 2022 by renholding

On November 17, 2022, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) issued a special alert to FINRA members concerning the heightened threat of fraud in small capitalization initial public offerings (“IPOs”). At the same time, both the New York Stock Exchange …

The Attack on Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule

By Darren Rosenblum, John Livingstone, Anat Alon-Beck and Michal Agmon-Gonnen September 13, 2022 by renholding

The recent pushback by conservative legal groups against equality and diversity on corporate boards has accelerated to new levels in the past few months. The latest example is a challenge to Nasdaq’s board diversity rule, which was approved in August …

Arnold & Porter Discusses Attacks on Board Diversity Initiatives

By Amy Endicott, Teresa L. Johnson, Sean M. SeLegue and Kaitlin Robinson May 5, 2022 by renholding

Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August 2021, is the subject of an ongoing, high stakes court battle in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The attorneys general of …

SEC Commissioner Peirce on Nasdaq Board Diversity Proposal

By Hester M. Peirce August 9, 2021 by renholding

I write in opposition to the approval of the Board Diversity Proposal (“Board Diversity Proposal” or “Proposal”) submitted for approval by the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“the Exchange”).[1] The Proposal attempts to expand opportunity, a goal I share,[2]

…

Paul Weiss Discusses SEC Approval of Nasdaq Rule Change Allowing Direct Listings

By Mark S. Bergman, Christopher J. Cummings, John C. Kennedy, Raphael M. Russo and Tracey A. Zaccone May 25, 2021 by renholding

On May 19, 2021, the SEC approved Nasdaq’s proposed rule change[1] to permit primary direct floor listings. This will permit companies to undertake an initial public offering and concurrent Nasdaq listing without the use of underwriters to market the …

Why Board Diversity and the Nasdaq Rule Requiring It Make Sense

By Richard W. Painter April 26, 2021 by renholding

In December 2020, Nasdaq asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve a new boardroom diversity rule.[1] The aim is for most Nasdaq-listed companies to have at least one director self-identifying as a woman and another self-identifying as …

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The CLS Blue Sky Blog

Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets

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