In this Cooley memo penned by William Pao, Jonathan Waxman and Julian Piroli, I read the fact patterns for the various securities litigation cases involving AI-related disclosures with great interest. It’s worth checking out. Here’s the intro from the memo: “In 2025, securities litigation over artificial intelligence claims reached a new level of intensity. What had been a trickle of exploratory cases before 2024 became …
Shareholder Proposals: What Do the Exclusion Notices Look Like So Far?
Ahead of this proxy season, Corp Fin issued this statement saying that it wouldn’t respond to no-action requests – at least until September 30, 2026 – unless a company is seeking relief under Rule 14a-8(i)(1), the “not a proper subject under federal or state law” exclusion basis for companies incorporated in Delaware. Companies are still required to notify the SEC and proponents of their intention …
The Most Common AI “Risk Factor” Categories
With the news that over 70% of S&P 500 companies provide some sort of AI-related risk factors in their SEC disclosures, it’s a good time to review the type of risk factors that you might want to consider – of course, tailoring the decision to include a particular risk factor and what is drafted about it to your own circumstances. If you’re using AI in …
The Future of Shareholder Proposals: ‘We Will Get By, We Will Survive’
This Cooley Alert penned by Brad Goldberg and Michael Mencher delves into the “now what” in the wake of the SEC’s position on shareholder proposals for this upcoming proxy season, including an exploration of the potential use of binding bylaws (and the related bylaw defenses), the inevitability of pressure tactics and the “Trojan Horse” dynamic. Here’s an excerpt: “If precatory proposals are not a guaranteed …
Broadridge’s Cathy Conlon on “Retail Voting Programs: All You Need to Know”
In this 13-minute video, Broadridge’s Cathy Conlon discusses the retail voting programs popularized by ExxonMobil, including: 1. What are the essential steps of the ExxonMobil program? 2. Will the SEC allow other companies to follow ExxonMobil’s program? What if a company wanted to change some of the parameters? 3. What is Broadridge’s universe of “retail holders” – why might a company’s retail base be bigger …
What Nom & Gov Committees Are Asking Corporate Secretaries Right Now
Sparked by Cooley’s Brad Goldberg’s discussion on a panel during the recent “Proxy Disclosure” conference hosted by TheCorporateCounsel.net – the Fall event that I founded many years ago – this blog features a list of the questions that Nom & Gov committees are commonly asking right now. Brad notes this list includes:
A New Prep Playbook: How to Prepare for Activism
I’m loving this piece posted on the “Cooley M&A” blog entitled “Activism in 2025 and Beyond: Universal Proxy, Litigation Leverage and a New Playbook for Preparedness” that includes a host of nuggets gleaned from a recent “Market Talks” panel featuring Cooley’s Bill Roegge, Jamie Leigh and Sean Brownridge, as well as Goldman Sachs’ Neil Rudisill and Collected Strategies’ Jim Golden. Here’s an excerpt: Universal proxy …
For a Shareholder Engagement Meeting, Who Should Attend?
Typically, someone from the general counsel/corporate secretary team is always involved in an engagement. From there, you look at the agenda for the engagement to see what the issues are – and you bring the right people. You don’t want people on the call on your side who will have no role. Having a dozen people on the call is overkill and won’t feel right …
How Do You Know Which Issues to Engage On?
The initial obvious answer is to engage on issues that the investors you’re meeting want to talk about. That’s the primary purpose of engagement – to find out what investors want to know and give them that information. But you should be proactive if you know there are issues that you should be engaging on. Don’t let it always be shareholder driven. Obviously, if you …
The Misleading Campaign Against Retail Voting Programs
Following up on the ExxonMobil retail voting program that recently received Corp Fin no-action relief – that I blogged about a few weeks ago – here’s an excerpt from this Cooley Alert penned by Brad Goldberg and Michael Mencher: “Contrary to the allegations of the retail voting program’s detractors, the SEC’s no-action response provides clear guardrails to ensure that retail voting programs do not undermine …