On March 6, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted its highly anticipated rules requiring climate-related disclosures. The final rules represent a significantly less burdensome set of rules than those...more
Since December 18, 2023 public companies other than smaller reporting companies are required to report a cybersecurity incident under Item 1.05 of Form 8-K within four business days after the company determines the incident...more
On July 26, the SEC adopted amendments to Regulation S-K and Exchange Act forms requiring public companies to disclose on a current basis material cybersecurity incidents and to disclose annually information regarding their...more
On December 14, the SEC adopted long-awaited amendments to Rule 10b5-1 under the Exchange Act that add new conditions for a trading arrangement to qualify for the rule’s affirmative defense against Rule 10b-5 liability for...more
12/22/2022
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Affirmative Defenses ,
Cooling-Off Rule ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Insider Trading ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation
On March 21, in one of its most significant rulemakings in recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that would require public companies to provide investors with extensive, consistent, and...more
On March 9, 2022 the SEC proposed rule amendments that would require public companies to report detailed information about material cybersecurity incidents affecting their business and about their cybersecurity risk...more
On March 21, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed its much anticipated rules requiring climate-related disclosure. The proposed rules, which are intended to provide investors with consistent,...more
On December 15, 2021 the SEC unveiled its long-awaited proposal to amend the requirements for securities trading arrangements adopted in reliance on Rule 10b5-1 under the Exchange Act. The proposed amendments would add new...more
As momentum builds for disclosure, boards and management should consider the following practices to minimize legal risk and fully leverage the benefits a successful environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy can...more
On November 3 the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin 14L (SLB 14L) to provide new guidance on the application of the “ordinary business” and “economic relevance” exceptions to a public company’s...more
11/16/2021
/ Corporate Governance ,
New Guidance ,
No-Action Requests ,
Ordinary Business Exception ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Rule 14a-8 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Shareholders
The SEC recently filed a civil suit in federal district court against AT&T, Inc. charging the company with violating Regulation FD in 2016 by selectively disclosing nonpublic financial estimates and results to sell-side...more
Below is a checklist of key changes and considerations that public companies should be aware of when preparing their Forms 10-K and proxy statements for the upcoming filing season. For ease of reference, we have divided the...more
On October 16 the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14K (CF) (SLB 14K) to provide updated guidance on the application of the "ordinary business" exception to a company's obligation under...more
10/24/2019
/ Corporate Governance ,
New Guidance ,
No-Action Requests ,
Ordinary Business Exception ,
Proof of Ownership ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Shareholders
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance recently announced changes to its process for responding to no-action requests that seek exclusion from proxy materials of shareholder proposals submitted under Exchange Act Rule...more
10/7/2019
/ Corporate Governance ,
New Guidance ,
No-Action Requests ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rule 14a-8 ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Shareholder Proposals
On August 8, the SEC proposed amendments to Regulation S-K to modernize required disclosures on business, legal proceedings and risk factors in Exchange Act and Securities Act filings. The proposed amendments represent the...more
8/28/2019
/ Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Investment Adviser ,
Judicial Proceedings ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Factors ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On March 20, the SEC voted to adopt amendments to Regulation S-K and related rules and forms in accordance with its mandate under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) to modernize and simplify disclosure...more
On December 18, 2018, the SEC adopted a requirement for U.S. public companies to provide proxy disclosure of any practices or policies they have adopted regarding the ability of the company's employees, officers or directors,...more
Prompted by concern over the increase in the risks and frequency of data breach incidents and other cyber-attacks affecting public companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently published interpretive guidance to...more
3/6/2018
/ Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Statements ,
Insider Trading ,
Interpretive Rule ,
Non-Public Information ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation FD ,
Regulation S-K ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The subject of director compensation awards has been moving up the corporate governance agenda of many public companies since December 2017.
...more
The SEC recently proposed amendments intended to update, streamline and improve its disclosure framework and to reduce the compliance burden for public companies. The proposed amendments, which are detailed in the proposing...more
On September 21, the SEC and the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance issued new and updated interpretive guidance regarding the CEO pay ratio disclosure required by Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K. The guidance...more
10/2/2017
/ CEOs ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Executive Compensation ,
Item 402 ,
Median Employee ,
Pay Ratio ,
Proxy Season ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statistical Sampling
On August 17, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued new guidance indicating that emerging growth companies (EGCs) and non-EGCs may omit from their nonpublic draft registration statements interim financial...more