Davis Polk Discusses SEC Chair’s Bid to Reframe Shareholder Proposals

By Ning Chiu and Joseph A. Hall October 23, 2025 by jlucero

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins’ speech last week in Delaware sounded to many like a death knell for shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8. In fact, it was far more strategic: the opening move to test whether Delaware corporate law even permits …

Wachtell Lipton on Lessons From the Future – The First Contested Virtual Annual Meeting

By Igor Kirman, Sabastian V. Niles, Oliver J. Board, Natalie S.Y. Wong and Loren Oumarova May 14, 2020 by renholding

The 2020 proxy season has been anything but routine, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting state shelter-in-place orders requiring many companies to make the shift from physical to virtual annual meetings, and state corporate laws being amended to allow …

How SEC Rule 14a-8 and the Ordinary Business Exception Impede ESG Disclosure Reform

By Virginia Harper Ho November 12, 2019 by renholding

Shareholder proposals urging corporate boards to report on climate‑related risk made headlines in 2017 when they earned majority support from investors at ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, and PPL.[1] The key to this historic vote was the support of the Big …

SEC Investor Advocate Talks Investor Issues for 2019

By Rick A. Fleming April 22, 2019 by renholding

Good afternoon. I hope you are enjoying this year’s edition of SEC Speaks, which gives the public a good overview of all the work that is going on at the Commission.[1] In the Office of the Investor Advocate, we

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The Effect of SEC Comment Letters on M&A Outcomes

By Bret A. Johnson, Ling Lei Lisic, Joon Seok Moon and Mengmeng Wang March 14, 2019 by renholding

Recent research on the effectiveness of the SEC’s filing review and comment letter process has focused almost exclusively on reviews of Forms 10-K and other periodic filings. Reviews of filings involving transactions such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have received …

ISS Takes an Early Look at 2019 Shareholder Proposals

By Kosmas Papadopoulos March 5, 2019 by renholding

In the U.S., shareholder proposal filings have historically played an important role in advancing corporate governance and in highlighting key risks related to environmental and social issues. Some of the major shifts in governance practices during the past two decades …

ISS Discusses U.S. Proxy Voting Trends from 2000 to 2018: Environmental and Social Issues

By Kosmas Papadopoulos February 5, 2019 by renholding

Appearances can be very deceiving. Case in point: The high-level summary numbers of voting results over the last 19 years seem to indicate that little has changed regarding proxy voting behavior among investors owning U.S. companies. A simple analysis of …

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

By Martin Lipton, Steven A. Rosenblum, Karessa L. Cain and Sabastian V. Niles February 4, 2019 by renholding

Regardless of industry, size or performance, no company should consider itself immune from hedge fund activism. No company is too large, too popular, too new or too successful. Even companies that are respected industry leaders and have outperformed the market …

Latham & Watkins Discusses Key Compensation Items for 2019 Proxy Season

By Holly M. Bauer, David T. Della Rocca, Maj Vaseghi, Bradd L. Williamson and Stephanie Jeane January 25, 2019 by renholding

Even as the US government shutdown continues to create complexities for many companies,[1] it is business as usual for US public companies that are continuing their annual planning for the upcoming proxy season. Although 2019 introduces fewer significant changes …

New York Attorney General Overreaches in Climate-Change Complaint Against Exxon

By Merritt B. Fox December 10, 2018 by renholding

The New York Attorney General (“NYAG”) recently filed a complaint against ExxonMobil alleging that the company violated the Martin Act, New York State’s securities law, by making material misstatements concerning how it was accounting for the possibility of increasingly stringent …

Davis Polk and Semler Brossy Offer an Update on Say-on-Pay

By Kyoko Takahashi Lin, Ning Chiu, Alicyn Gilbert, Blair Jones and Kathryn Neel December 5, 2018 by renholding

The proxy season is just around the corner for calendar year public companies, and, ahead of the season, two major proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, recently released their 2019 policy updates. ISS’s 2019 policy updates…

ISS Comments for the SEC Staff Roundtable on the Proxy Process

By Gary Retelny November 9, 2018 by renholding

Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) appreciates the opportunity to comment in advance of the SEC Staff Roundtable on the Proxy Process that is scheduled for November 15, 2018. We focus these preliminary comments on two primary areas, proxy advisory firms …

Proposed New Disclosures for Mutual Fund Advisers

By Bernard S. Sharfman October 19, 2018 by renholding

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) release establishing the Proxy Voting Rule, an investment adviser “is a fiduciary that owes each of its clients duties of care and loyalty with respect to all services undertaken on the client’s …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses the State of Play in Activism

By Martin Lipton and Zachary S. Podolsky October 11, 2018 by renholding

As we approach the 2019 proxy season, developments since September 2017 prompt a brief updated review of the state of play.

The threat of activism remains high, and has become increasingly global.
Activist assets under management remain at elevated levels,

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Is Shareholder Voting an Effective Corporate Governance Tool?

By Cory A. Cassell, Tyler J. Kleppe and Jonathan E. Shipman October 3, 2018 by renholding

Proponents of shareholder voting argue that restricting it would reduce the ability of shareholders to hold management accountable. The implication of this argument is that mandating equal voting rights for all shares will benefit shareholders. However, the evidence as to …

Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses SEC’s Withdrawal of Proxy Advisory Guidance

By Marc Treviño, Misha Patel and Amanda Toy September 19, 2018 by renholding

On September 13, the SEC’s Division of Investment Management withdrew two interpretive letters issued in 2004 to Egan-Jones Proxy Services (“Egan-Jones”) and Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. (“ISS”). The letters described some of the guidelines under which an investment adviser could …

SEC Commissioner Jackson Issues Statement on Shareholder Voting

By Robert J. Jackson, Jr. September 14, 2018 by renholding

Today, the Office of the Chairman and the Division of Investment Management at the Securities and Exchange Commission suddenly raised questions about long-resolved issues regarding shareholder voting.[1] Because the Investor Advisory Committee’s critical work in this area is ongoing, …

SEC Chair Issues Statement on Proxy Process Roundtable

By Jay Clayton August 1, 2018 by renholding

Shareholder engagement is a hallmark of our public capital markets, and the proxy process is a fundamental component of that engagement. In 2010, the Commission issued a concept release seeking public comment on whether the U.S. proxy system as a …

Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Hot Topics in Corporate Governance

By Sullivan & Cromwell July 16, 2018 by renholding

Corporate Governance, Surveys, Policies and Reports

Lazard Report Finds Increased Shareholder Activism in Q1 2018: Lazard’s Quarterly Review of Shareholder Activism for Q1 of 2018 found increased activism by shareholders in terms of number of campaigns initiated, board seats

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Cleary Gottlieb Discusses Long Term Investors’ Duty to Revive the Staggered Board

By Neil Whoriskey June 11, 2018 by renholding

Beyond the cacophonous din of voices calling for companies to serve a “social purpose,” adopt a variety of governance proposals, achieve quarterly performance targets, and listen to (and indeed even “think like”) activists, there is now, most promisingly, a call …

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