Teneo reports that the percentage of large companies obtaining external assurance of at least one ESG data point held steady at 62% for this year, as well as last year. KPMG’s survey went a step further, finding that 79% of FTSE 100 companies obtained some sort of external ESG assurance. Cooley’s Michael Mencher notes that for many of these larger companies, this is likely related …
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What the SEC’s (Pending) Shutdown Means for You
With it looking pretty likely that the federal government will shut down at midnight tomorrow, here are 10 things you should know based on the SEC’s “operations plan during a shutdown” guidance and Corp Fin’s list of 22 shutdown FAQs:
How Should Venture and Investment Funds Prepare for EDGAR Next?
Following up on this 29-minute video we blogged about yesterday regarding preparing for EDGAR Next in general, in this 12-minute video, Cooley’s Darren DeStefano tackles these issues unique to venture and investment funds, including:
How to Prepare Now for Edgar Next
In this 29-minute video, Cooley’s Luci Altman and Darren DeStefano discuss what you should be doing now to prepare for the SEC’s EDGAR Next, including (also see this “Your Top 12 Decision Points for EDGAR Next” blog and the SEC’s list of EDGAR Next resources):
Shareholder Engagement on Comp: Time-Sensitive Complications for This Proxy Season
Here’s this Cooley Alert from Ali Murata, Michael Bergmann and Brad Goldberg: “As most public companies know, shareholder outreach is often an important part of the playbook when a company is seeking approval of compensation-related proposals at an annual meeting. A company may engage with shareholders proactively ahead of a compensation-related proposal or in response to a negative recommendation from proxy advisory firms. In addition …
Vanguard Also Resumes Shareholder Engagements
As expected when we heard that BlackRock had resumed shareholder engagements shortly after it paused them in the wake of Corp Fin’s new CDI positions regarding “control” and “influencing” a company when engaging, Vanguard also has now resumed its engagements after pausing them a few weeks ago, as reported in this article. It will be interesting to hear how the nature of engagements going forward …
Corp Fin Issues New Guidance Further Accommodating Nonpublic Draft Registration Statements
A few days ago, Corp Fin issued this guidance expanding the accommodations available for nonpublic review of draft registration statements to all issuers, building on the 2017 expansion of nonpublic reviews initiated by the JOBS Act for emerging growth companies. This guidance reflects updates tied to the SEC’s 2024 SPAC rules, ensuring alignment with evolving market practices and it maintains existing EGC benefits while broadening …
Glass Lewis Addresses Board Diversity With “For Your Attention” Flag
This Cooley Alert that I blogged about earlier today – penned by Brad Goldberg, Beth Sasfai, Luci Altman, and Michael Mencher – has been updated for this development: “On March 4, 2025, Glass Lewis sent a memo to clients providing an update on its diversity-related proxy voting policies. While an earlier Glass Lewis memo from February 19 previewed that Glass Lewis was considering implementing changes …
Board Diversity: Policy Updates and Considerations for Proxy Season
After the following intro of this Cooley Alert – penned by Brad Goldberg, Beth Sasfai, Luci Altman, and Michael Mencher – dig into the nitty gritty of the various investor and proxy advisor policy updates you should be aware of, as well as the takeaways (including addressing how State Street updated its voting policies in this area on Friday): “Public companies find themselves rethinking disclosures …
How Will Deep Cuts to the SEC Staff Impact You?
With this Administration moving fast to deeply cut the federal workforce, you may be wondering what a trimmed-down SEC might look like. This is just conjecture – but here are five thoughts on how that might impact you: