On March 6, 2024, the SEC adopted expansive new climate disclosure rules (the “Rules”). As noted in our March 12, 2024 client alert summarizing and analyzing the new Rules, litigation challenging the Rules was already...more
On March 6, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted final rules that will require expansive new climate-related disclosures in Form 10-K and Form 20-F annual reports and most registration statements....more
3/14/2024
/ Annual Reports ,
Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Executives ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Reporting ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 20-F ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Internal Controls ,
Registration Statement ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments that will expand quarterly disclosure of share repurchases in Form 10-Q quarterly reports and Form 10-K annual reports filed by domestic operating companies....more
5/9/2023
/ Amended Rules ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 10-Q ,
Form 20-F ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Required Forms ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Share Buybacks ,
Stock Repurchases ,
XBRL Filing Requirements
On December 13, 2022, the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (the “staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) published seven new or revised Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“C&DIs”)...more
12/20/2022
/ C&DIs ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Reporting ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 10-Q ,
Form 8-K ,
GAAP ,
New Guidance ,
Non-GAAP Financial Measures ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-X ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis (GL) have issued their policy updates for the upcoming 2023 proxy season. In general, ISS’s updates build incrementally on positions the firm has...more
12/7/2022
/ Board of Directors ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Executive Compensation ,
Glass Lewis ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies
The SEC published final rules in late August 2022 that will require new pay versus performance disclosure in 2023 proxy statements, as described in our earlier client alert. These rules will require companies that are not...more
12/1/2022
/ Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Executive Compensation ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Reporting ,
Pay Ratio ,
Pay-for-Performance ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On October 26, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted regulations (the “final rules”) implementing Section 10D of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), which was added by the...more
11/2/2022
/ Clawbacks ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Executive Compensation ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Reporting ,
GAAP ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Section 10D ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act
The SEC published final rules in late August 2022 that will require new pay versus performance disclosure in 2023 proxy statements, as described in our recent client alert. These rules will require companies that are not...more
9/16/2022
/ Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Executive Compensation ,
Final Rules ,
Pay Ratio ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Smaller Reporting Companies ,
Total Shareholder Return (TSR)
On July 13, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed amendments to Rule 14a-8, which specifies the conditions under which companies can exclude shareholder proposals from the company’s proxy...more
Ruling Follows Similar Decision on Underrepresented Minority Directors in April 2022 -
A California court has held that California Senate Bill 826, which required that “publicly held” corporations that listed a California...more
5/20/2022
/ Board of Directors ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Form 10-K ,
Gender Equity ,
Institutional Investors ,
Listing Rules ,
Nasdaq ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
State Constitutions ,
UK ,
Woman Board Members
The two dominant proxy advisory firms — Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis (GL) — have issued their policy updates for the 2022 proxy season. These updates reflect the continuing trend of institutional...more
12/15/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Diversity ,
Dual Class Share Structures ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Executive Compensation ,
Glass Lewis ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholder Meetings
On November 3, 2021, the staff (“staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance (“Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L which reverses a series of...more
11/8/2021
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Institutional Investors ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
New Guidance ,
No-Action Letters ,
No-Action Requests ,
Proof of Ownership ,
Proxy Advisors ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Rule 14a-8 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Proposals
The staff of the Division of Corporation Finance (“Staff”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published a sample comment letter on climate change disclosures on September 22, 2021. A brief statement that...more
On August 19, 2021, the New York Stock Exchange amended its rules that require approval of related party transactions for NYSE-listed companies. This amendment, which is effective immediately, modifies an earlier amendment to...more
8/25/2021
/ Amended Rules ,
Audit Committee ,
Board of Directors ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
NYSE ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Related Parties ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) published its proxy voting guidelines updates for 2021 (“Policy Updates”) on November 12, 2020. The changes that are likely to be of most interest to companies include new and...more
11/18/2020
/ Advance Notice ,
Annual Meeting ,
Board of Directors ,
Bylaws ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Exclusive Forum ,
Independent Director ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Poison Pill ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
S&P ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Virtual Meetings
On September 30, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 979 (AB-979) into law, which will require every public company with securities listed on a major U.S. stock exchange and that has its principal...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted the third group of amendments to its disclosure requirements, originally proposed in August 2019 and discussed in an earlier Goodwin client alert. The amendments, which are...more
9/24/2020
/ Business Strategies ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Statements ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 10-Q ,
Form 8-K ,
Human Capital ,
Item 101 ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Registration Statement ,
Regulation S-K ,
Risk Factors ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On March 13, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and the Division of Investment Management (Staff) have published guidance to assist public...more
3/16/2020
/ Annual Meeting ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Governance ,
Division of Corporate Finance ,
Division of Investment Management ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Investment Companies ,
Proxy Materials ,
Public Health ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Meetings ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Virtual Meetings
In January 2020, two of the largest asset managers, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) and BlackRock, emphasized that they will hold Boards of Directors accountable for not making significant progress on sustainability and...more
2/11/2020
/ BlackRock ,
Board of Directors ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investors ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
SASB ,
Shareholders ,
State Street ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) recently announced that it has issued guidance on key performance indicators and metrics in Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A). Although the guidance in the...more
2/6/2020
/ Annual Reports ,
Corporate Executives ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Reporting ,
Financial Statements ,
Form 10-K ,
MD&A Statements ,
New Guidance ,
Performance Standards ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has published its annual updates to its proxy voting guidelines, which will be effective for annual meetings held on or after February 1, 2020. The ISS updates include matters related...more
In November 2018, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) released updates to its 2019 U.S. voting policies, which will be effective for meetings on or after February 1, 2019, and a preliminary list of frequently asked...more
ISS has announced its policy updates for 2017 shareholder meetings. Significant corporate governance policy changes include negative voting recommendations for companies that restrict shareholders’ ability to amend the...more