In the 2024 proxy season, 149 of the technology and life sciences companies included in the Fenwick – Bloomberg Law Silicon Valley 150 List (SV 150) and all of the companies in Standard & Poor’s (S&P 100) held annual meetings. Generally, such …
In the wake of current political volatility, corporate boards should continually exercise the full scope of their leadership role, in order to sustain the organizational mission and respond to stakeholder interests they serve. Every incoming administration …
Over the past decade, special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”) became a prominent method for private companies to go public through a merger transaction (“de-SPAC”) between a publicly-listed SPAC and a private company. The SPAC boom peaked in 2020 …
Despite record levels of demographic diversity in board composition, directional trends are slowing amid an increasingly complex economic and social environment. This report provides a detailed analysis of evolving board composition and practices in 2024, …
Below are the key findings from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s 2024 Silicon Valley 150 Corporate Governance Report, which analyzes the corporate governance practices and disclosures of the Valley’s largest public companies based on reviews of proxy …
As we close out 2024, allow me a moment to thank you for sharing your time and your wisdom this last year. I look forward to working with all of you next year, which is likely to be a particularly eventful year for both the Commission and the Investor …
Good morning. I am pleased to meet with the Investor Advisory Committee. As today’s meeting is the last of this Administration, I’d like to share some reflections about this Committee and its importance to everyday investors. As is customary, I’d note that …
I. Introduction Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted long-anticipated rules mandating climate-related disclosures in public companies’ annual reports and registration statements (SEC Climate Rules). [1] While the new …
The role of shareholders in corporate governance has evolved in recent decades, even in jurisdictions where shareholder influence has been limited. Traditionally, shareholder interests were held to be narrowly focused on maximising financial returns, with …
Guidelines on human rights have helped shape some of the key principles of corporate responsibility. Increasingly, however, governments are hardening guidelines into law. Penalties for companies that fail to comply may be severe—but the risks to investors …
Summary We quantify the U.S. corporate sector’s carbon externality by computing the sector’s “carbon burden”—the present value of social costs of its future carbon emissions. Our baseline estimate of the carbon burden is 131% of total corporate equity …
Biodiversity risk represents a significant and growing financial risk, with the potential to impact global economic value directly and indirectly through operational risks, transition costs, environmental liabilities and more. A 2020 report by the World …
Key Points Companies should critically assess the strength of their cybersecurity defenses against evolving threats, including third parties’ vulnerabilities. Recent changes in regulatory expectations for cybersecurity have underscored the need for board …
Posted by Adam Aderton, A. Kristina Littman, and Erik Holmvik, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, on Saturday, November 30, 2024 Posted by Josh Black, Will Arnot, and Miles Rogerson, Diligent Market Intelligence, on Sunday, December 1, 2024 Posted by Vince …
ISSB ADOPTS INITIAL STANDARDS WITH COMPANY-SPECIFIC MODEL OF MATERIALITY In a prior post on this Forum, I discussed the need for the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to adopt a “sesquimateriality” approach to disclosure: one that would …
Key Points Proxy advisory firms and institutional investors increasingly view tenures over nine years as too long, questioning the independence of directors who have served longer than that. Board refreshment is a frequent demand of activists, so companies …
Generative AI has emerged as a major technology that is disrupting both the finance industry and financial research methodologies. The release of ChatGPT in November 2022, followed by rapid advancements in large language models (LLMs), has led to changes …
Introduction With the recent COP29 conference developing standards for carbon credit markets, ESG investors may wish to learn more about such credits and the debates surrounding them. A carbon credit is an emissions unit that is issued by a carbon …
On September 27, 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill (“SB”) 219, which makes certain changes to last year’s Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) and Climate‐Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261). SB 219 clarifies …
How parties to a loan agreement or bond indenture can change the terms of their deal is an important, if frequently neglected, aspect of debt financing. Bonds and loans represent a company’s obligation to repay a debt, with interest, over time. But only a …
