Latest Articles

Landed on the Moon: Now What? The Aftermath of Moonshot Awards

Coming up on Wednesday, November 13th is the next episode in our “Comp Talks” series, during which Cooley’s Scott McCall and Pete Adams – with Ali Murata moderating – will discuss recent developments in mega grant equity compensation awards given to controlling shareholder executives – and the corporate governance matters that have arisen and continue to arise as a result. Register now. Here are four …

What Does a Shareholder Engagement Program Look Like?

Continuing on with our “shareholder engagement” series of blogs, you need an organized set of engagement procedures with priorities and the ability to call on internal cross-department coordination – and director participation – when needed, depending on what is on the engagement agenda. Some companies have a written shareholder engagement policy to memorialize their processes and procedures and help set the company’s ground rules. You …

Challenges in Meeting 2030 Climate Goals? What To Do Now

I was talking to Cooley’s Beth Sasfai and Michael Mencher about the challenges many companies are facing with ambitious climate goals that no longer seem realistic. Here’s what Beth and Michael told me (also see them in this 3-minute video with Emma Bichet about the same topic): Maybe you set 2030 targets way back in 2019 or 2020 – or recently set targets to meet …

D&O Questionnaires: How In-House Practitioners Must Use Their Judgment (Part 2)

Here is Part 2 of a two-part blog series about nine aspects of the D&O questionnaire process for which in-house lawyers must use their judgment (here is Part 1 covering the first three aspects and more): 4. Frame the question properly It’s important how you frame the question. This bears repeating: It’s important how you frame the question. For those areas where you expect there …

ISS Issues FAQ on Meaning of ‘Robust’ Clawback Policy

Here’s an excerpt from this Cooley Alert by Ali Murata, Barbara Mirza, Michael Bergmann, and Janice Chan about new FAQ 46 of ISS’ Executive Compensation FAQs: “In short, the new FAQ specifies that a clawback policy will not be viewed as “robust” for purposes of ISS’ Executive Compensation Analysis unless it extends beyond Dodd-Frank requirements and applies to all time-vesting awards as well as performance-vesting …