Since Corp Fin recently renamed the CDIs to “CFIs” – “Corporation Finance Interpretations” to the “Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations” – I thought it would be a good time to recount the long history (50 years!) of this source of informal staff guidance. Here are nine things to know: Hat tip to Phil Brown, the former CEO of Intelligize and Tina Fukunaga, a retired SEC librarian …
How to Be Quoted by the Media
As I celebrate the 24th anniversary of my blogging this week, I thought I’d share my ten cents about dealing with journalists since I’ve been quoted through the years quite a bit. During the height of the Sarbanes-Oxley implementation craze, I’d talk to at least two reporters per week. The $64,000 question for you should be: “how do I get quoted in the media?” The …
Happy 25th Birthday to RealCorporateLawyer.com!
How many of you remember RealCorporateLawyer.com? I sure do. It was my first website – and I launched it twenty-five years ago today. I left the SEC at the end of ’98, having been sort of the “Internet guy” within Corp Fin for a few years – handling a lot of issues related to how this new thing called “the Web” impacted the securities laws. …
The Subtle Evolution of the SEC’s Reg Flex Agenda
It struck me as I was reading this statement from SEC Chair Paul Atkins about the latest Reg Flex Agenda – see this recent blog about the details of that – about how the importance of that agenda has grown over the years. When I first started blogging about the agenda, I had never heard of it before – and I doubt many others had …
Congrats to McKesson’s Jim Brashear!
Bracebridge Young was one of the founders and a long-term CEO of the “American Society of Corporate Secretaries,” which is now called the “Society of Corporate Governance.” He was widely admired back in his heyday about 70 years ago. For some time, the Society has given an Award in Bracebridge’s name. The Award is considered the Society’s highest honor in an effort to recognize persons …
The Life of Former SEC Chair (and Corp Fin Director) Manny Cohen
Recently, I blogged about the 20 Corp Fin Directors we’ve had at the SEC (we haven’t heard yet who will be the new Corp Fin Director) – and it got me thinking about Manny Cohen, whom many of us don’t know much about since he worked at the SEC so long ago. Here’s an excerpt about Manny from an “SEC Historical Society” interview with David …
The Latest in ‘What Directors Think’
The survey results from this “What Directors Think” publication from Corporate Board Member, Diligent Institute and FTI Consulting are based on the thoughts of more than 200 US public company directors. Here are a dozen lessons learned from the results: 1. Growth is back on the agenda. After years of defensive strategies, 76% of directors are prioritizing growth initiatives in 2025, signaling a shift from …
The Upcoming Society Conference: Proxy Season Wristbands!
If you’re attending the ‘Society of Corporate Governance’ Conference in Colorado in a few weeks, look for one of our Cooley people – including me – so that you can procure one of our nifty “proxy season wristbands.” You can visit us at our cocktail party on Thursday, July 10th at “The Golden Bee” at the Broadmoor starting at 7:30 pm – everyone attending the …
Where Do Corp Fin Directors Hail From?
As we await word as to who the next Corp Fin Director is, I thought it might be useful to investigate where these folks typically hail from. Below is an analysis of this list of Corp Fin Directors that I created long ago on TheCorporateCounsel.net. As you can see the bulk of the twenty Directors had served on the Staff in some capacity at a …
Unintended Consequences of the SEC’s Buyouts: Few “Going-Away” Parties
As noted in this USA Today article, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Warner sent a letter a few weeks ago to the GAO requesting an investigation into the impact of the SEC’s recent buyouts and the upcoming layoffs resulting from DOGE activities. Anecdotally, it sounds like about 700 staffers accepted buyouts – and that certain Divisions were impacted more than others (like the Division of …