Shareholder Proposals and the Debate over Sustainability Disclosure

By Jill E. Fisch and Adriana Z. Robertson July 11, 2023 by renholding

In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule requiring public companies to make certain climate-related disclosures as part of their securities filings.[1] The rule has been highly controversial, generating thousands of comment letters in …

Milbank Discusses Universal Proxy and “Horizontal” Conflicts

By Neil Whoriskey May 10, 2023 by renholding

There is reason to believe the SEC’s new universal proxy Rule 14a-19 will result in more stockholder nominees being elected to the boards of public companies.

First, the rule allows voting stockholders to make their own ad hoc choice of …

Should Labor Abandon Its Capital?

By David H. Webber March 3, 2023 by renholding

Public pension funds and labor union funds (together “labor’s capital”) have faced years of criticism from both the left and the right. The current battle between ESG and anti-ESG advocates, and the introduction of legislation at the state level trying …

Covington Discusses Corporate Political-Disclosure Shareholder Proposals

By Robert Kelner, Matthew Franker, Zachary G. Parks and Mellissa Campbell Duru February 27, 2023 by renholding

The 2023 proxy season is underway for public companies and their investors. Corporate secretaries, lawyers, and executives are actively engaged in the SEC’s shareholder proposal process. Consistent with recent proxy seasons, a significant number of companies are receiving proposals calling …

Wachtell Lipton on Dealing with Activist Hedge Funds and Other Activist Investors

By Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, Karessa L. Cain, Sabastian V. Niles and Anna Dimitrijević September 7, 2022 by renholding

The SEC rule requiring a universal proxy card in director election proxy fights becomes effective today [September 1]. The resurgence of activism is already in progress, and the universal proxy card may significantly facilitate some proxy contests in which an …

Davis Polk Discusses SEC’s Final Rules on Proxy Advisory Firms

By Ning Chiu, Nicole Brookshire, Joseph A. Hall, Michael Kaplan and Richard D. Truesdell Jr. July 21, 2022 by renholding

When the SEC adopted the rules governing proxy advisory firms two years ago, then-Chair Clayton emphasized that the rules were “the fruits of a rigorous and well-functioning rulemaking process where final rules reflect and benefit from the input of a …

SEC Chair Gensler Addresses Proposed Amendments to Rule 14a-8, Proxy-Voting Advice Rules

By Gary Gensler July 14, 2022 by renholding

Today [July 13], the Commission will consider proposed amendments to Rule 14a-8 that would provide greater certainty as to the circumstances in which companies are able to exclude shareholder proposals from their proxy statements. I am pleased to support the …

ISS Discusses Japanese Board Independence and Diversity

By Taketoshi Yoshikawa April 28, 2022 by renholding

A recent ISS analysis of Japanese board composition finds a marked uptick in board independence and female board representation. At the close of Japan’s March 2022 “mini-season”, ISS found a 13percentage point jump in companies with at least a one-third

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Wachtell Lipton Discusses Board Oversight of ESG and the 2022 Proxy Season

By David M. Silk, Sabastian V. Niles and Carmen X.W. Lu April 4, 2022 by renholding

Last year’s proxy season saw investor support for an unprecedented number of ESG proposals, on issues ranging from climate change to human capital management to diversity, equity and inclusion. Proxy advisory firms increasingly recommended that shareholders vote for such proposals. …

Skadden Discusses New Pressure on Companies to Disclose Political Policies and Contributions

By Ki P. Hong, Melissa L. Miles and Karina Bakhshi-Azar February 28, 2022 by renholding

Political activities of corporations are increasingly subject to scrutiny on environmental, social and governance (ESG) grounds. Demands that corporations and their political action committees (PACs) justify their contributions based on candidates’ voting records on ESG issues came to the fore …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Investor Priorities in 2022

By Andrew R. Brownstein, Steven A. Rosenblum, Sabastian V. Niles and Carmen X.W. Lu January 25, 2022 by renholding

Last year, major investors took unprecedented steps through engagement efforts and proxy voting to demonstrate their commitment to addressing the climate transition and board and workforce diversity and inclusion, with focus given to disclosure and reporting of key ESG metrics …

Cahill Gordon Discusses Proxy Advisers’ Voting Guidelines for 2022

By Helene R. Banks, Geoffrey E. Liebmann, Kimberly C. Petillo-Décossard, Glenn J. Waldrip, Jr. and Sarah Klein-Cloud January 17, 2022 by renholding

Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) have each issued their respective proxy voting guidelines for 2022, which include a number of noteworthy revisions, summarized below. The ISS updates are available here and will apply …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses ISS Final Voting Policies for the 2022 Proxy Season

By Andrew R. Brownstein, Andrea K. Wahlquist, Sabastian V. Niles, Justin C. Nowell and Ram Sachs December 14, 2021 by renholding

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recently released its final U.S. voting policies, which largely track previously proposed policies and become effective for shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2022. Glass Lewis released its final U.S. voting policies for the …

The Price of Your Vote: Proxy Choice and Securities Lending

By Joshua Mitts October 11, 2021 by renholding

On October 7, 2021, BlackRock announced that, beginning in 2022, institutional clients would have the opportunity to direct the voting of shares held by index funds. Some commentators heralded this change as “a catalyst for others in [the investment management] …

Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses SEC Proposal to Enhance Proxy Voting Disclosure by Investment Funds

By Donald R. Crawshaw, Eric M. Diamond, Joseph A. Hearn, Sarah P. Payne and Marc Trevino October 11, 2021 by benzonenshayn

On September 29, 2021, the SEC issued a proposed rulemaking to enhance the information mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other registered management investment companies (“funds”) report annually about their proxy votes. The proposal also would require so-called “institutional investment managers” …

SEC Chair Gensler Speaks on Proposal to Enhance Proxy Voting Disclosure

By Gary Gensler September 30, 2021 by renholding

Good morning. This is an open meeting of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 29, 2021. I want to welcome members of the public who are listening in.

This is my first open meeting as Chair of this

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McMillan Discusses Key Considerations in Implementing Shareholder Votes on Climate

By Ravipal S. Bains, Gavyn Backus and Andjela Sabet August 2, 2021 by renholding

As the momentum of shareholder engagement on climate-related matters continues to grow across the globe, including in Canada, these issues remain a key focus area for public companies. One of the tools that has gained prominence is the so-called “Say …

Does Proxy Advice Allow Funds to Cast Informed Votes?

By John G. Matsusaka and Chong Shu July 22, 2021 by renholding

Our examination of the votes cast by 155 mutual funds on over 6 million corporate election items during 2004-2017 led us to a surprising conclusion: We found that Institutional Shareholder Services’ (ISS) proxy advice did not lead funds to vote …

Creating Controversy in Proxy Voting Advice

By Andrey Malenko, Nadya Malenko and Chester S. Spatt June 14, 2021 by renholding

Proxy advisory firms have emerged as major players in corporate governance by helping to address the public goods aspects of information production in corporate governance. These firms provide both a) recommendations on how to cast proxy votes and b) research …

SEC Commissioners Respond to Chairman’s Call for Review of Proxy-Voting Advice Rules

By Hester M. Peirce and Elad L. Roisman June 3, 2021 by renholding

Today [June 1], Chair Gensler announced that he has directed the SEC staff to consider whether to recommend that the Commission revisit its recent regulatory actions taken with respect to proxy voting advice businesses and its longstanding interpretation of proxy

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