On September 7, 2021, a Delaware court largely denied The Boeing Company’s (“Boeing”) motion to dismiss a stockholder derivative suit against Boeing directors in connection with two crashes of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane in...more
Today, Shearman & Sterling released its 19th annual Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation Survey, which finds that the boards of directors of the largest 100 U.S. companies have maintained their strong focus on...more
11/4/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Management ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Corporate Strategy ,
Cybersecurity ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Equity ,
Executive Compensation ,
Human Capital ,
Shareholders
In last year’s Survey, we noted that concern for environmental and social issues (the “E” and the “S” of “ESG”) had reached an inflection point, having taken center stage from the more traditional governance issues (the “G”...more
10/2/2020
/ Best Practices ,
Board of Directors ,
Business Plans ,
Business Strategies ,
Capital Markets ,
CEOs ,
Commercial Real Estate Market ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Diversity ,
Executive Compensation ,
Golden Parachutes ,
Shareholders
With fewer than 18 months until the expected cessation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), regulators have developed a keen interest on how financial institutions are preparing to transition from what has been...more
On June 18, 2020, the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced the details of an examination initiative specifically focused on LIBOR preparedness. OCIE has...more
Proposed Amendments to Form 13F Would Increase the Reporting Threshold from $100 Million to $3.5 Billion, Among Other Changes
On July 10, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a proposed rule (the...more
On April 8, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), adopted amendments that would allow business development companies (BDCs) and registered closed-end funds (CEFs), to use the securities offering rules that are...more
As the world responds to COVID-19, we have identified a wide variety of compliance and legal considerations for asset managers. We previously summarized a select list of these considerations on March 18, 2020. Given the...more
Planning for an unexpected absence or loss of a key person is an important component of enterprise risk management. In the present environment, boards are meeting regularly in real time to address absences of key persons–both...more
As part of its response to the effects and economic disruption that the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) is causing to the worldwide economy, on March 25, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued...more
As part of its response to the effects and economic disruption that the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) is causing to the worldwide economy, on March 25, 2020, the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S....more
As the markets continue to react to the COVID-19 pandemic, the trading prices of many corporate loans and bonds have fallen dramatically. As a result, many companies (or their private equity sponsors) are looking at...more
COVID-19: DISCLOSURE AND CAPITAL MARKETS CONSIDERATIONS FOR US LISTED PUBLIC COMPANIES -
The outbreak and continuing spread of the novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and the related disruption to the worldwide economy are...more
Amendments eliminate audited three-year guarantor financial statement footnote and separate financial statements of subsidiaries whose shares are pledged; replaced with unaudited combined summarized financial information for...more
3/10/2020
/ Amended Regulation ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Debt Securities ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Statements ,
Guarantors ,
Parent Corporation ,
Public Offerings ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-X ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Subsidiaries
On December 30, 2019, New York State enacted the “Women on Corporate Boards Study Act” (the “Act”), which requires the New York Department of State and the Department of Taxation and Finance to conduct a study on the number...more
In a December 18, 2019 release, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed to amend the definition of “accredited investor” in Rule 501 of Regulation D and the definition of “qualified institutional buyer” in Rule...more
1/9/2020
/ Accredited Investors ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Qualified Institutional Buyers ,
Registered Investment Advisors ,
Regulation D ,
Rule 144A ,
Rule 501 ,
Rule 506 ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities Act ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
It is now time for foreign private issuers to prepare their annual reports on Form 20-F. For companies with a calendar year-end, the Form 20-F must be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) by April...more
1/2/2020
/ Annual Reports ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Audit Reports ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EBITDA ,
European Commission ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Form 20-F ,
Helms-Burton Act ,
IFRS ,
Libor ,
Non-GAAP Financial Measures ,
SEC Comment Letter Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
UK Brexit ,
XBRL Filing Requirements
Board Oversight Disclosure. Over the past several years, companies have increasingly used their proxy statements to communicate how their boards have exercised oversight over key matters. We expect this trend to accelerate in...more
11/15/2019
/ Corporate Governance ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Glass Lewis ,
Guidance Update ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Proxy Advisory Firms ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Voting ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a long-awaited exemptive rule that will allow most exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to operate without an exemptive order, subject to various conditions. The final rule, which the...more
10/1/2019
/ ETFs ,
Exchange-Traded Products ,
Exemptive Orders ,
Final Rules ,
Foreign Investment ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Investment Management ,
Registration Statement ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Transparency
On September 25, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a new rule that will enable all issuers to “test the waters” prior to publicly filing a registration statement. Currently, only emerging growth companies,...more
9/30/2019
/ Accredited Investors ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Institutional Investors ,
New Rules ,
Public Offerings ,
Qualified Institutional Buyers ,
Regulation FD ,
Rule 163B ,
Securities Act ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Testing-the-Waters Communications
Concern for environmental and social issues has reached an inflection point. While traditional governance issues that have been a staple of investor advocacy and discussion (the “G” of ESG) continue to be important,...more
9/11/2019
/ Best Practices ,
Board of Directors ,
Business Plans ,
Business Strategies ,
Capital Investments ,
Capital Markets ,
CEOs ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Golden Parachutes ,
Pay Ratio ,
Popular ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholder Activism ,
Stakeholder Engagement ,
Woman Board Members
On August 8, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed amendments (the “Proposed Rule”) to modernize its existing requirements for how companies disclose risk factors and describe their business and...more
8/13/2019
/ Best Practices ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Policies ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Public Comment ,
Registration Statement ,
Regulation S-K ,
Risk Factors ,
Rule 144A ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On July 3, 2019, Chairman Jay Clayton of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Statement Regarding Offers of Settlement (the “Public Statement”) to announce a significant shift in the SEC’s process of...more
8/8/2019
/ Bad Actors ,
Cease and Desist Orders ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Statements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SEC Commissioner ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Negotiations
Although final rules were published in December of 2018, July 1st marked the date that issuers (other than smaller reporting companies and emerging growth companies) must begin complying with the Dodd-Frank Act’s hedging...more
On May 3, 2019, the SEC proposed for public comment amendments to its rules related to the financial statements required to be disclosed by SEC reporting companies or in IPOs in connection with an acquisition or disposal of a...more