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 …
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COSO Drops Proposed Corporate Governance Framework (For Now)
Last week, COSO withdrew its public exposure draft for a corporate governance framework just a month after it was proposed. This was a set of FAQs about it that was posted when the proposal first was made. Immediately upon release, a number of complaints were voiced about the proposed framework. It’s notable that COSO has indicated that it may release an updated proposal somewhere down …
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 …
Podcast: “Navigating Compensation Challenges During Uncertain Times”
In this 21-minute podcast on CompensationStandards.com, Cooley’s Ali Murata and Michael Bergmann discuss:
Corp Fin Revises 18 “Schedule 13D/G” CDIs
A few days ago, Corp Fin revised a total of 18 CDIs related to Schedule 13Ds and 13Gs, mainly to align them with the changes to the rules related to those Schedules made back in October ’23. The CDIs are redlined by Corp Fin as is their new practice. As noted by Cooley’s Justin Kisner, the updates can be categorized to be in three buckets:
Reincorporation Considerations for Late-Stage Private and Pre-IPO Companies
Here’s an excerpt from this lengthy piece on Cooley’s CapitalXchange that explores the impact of the recent Delaware, Texas and Nevada state changes relating to in which state a company might want to be incorporated in: “Senate Bill 21 also makes changes to Section 220 of the DGCL, relating to the inspection of books and records, including the following: Our securities litigation + enforcement colleagues …
Proxy Season Highlights: Shareholder and Management Proposals
Here’s an excerpt from this jam-packed Cooley Alert penned by Michael Mencher, Brad Goldberg, Vince Flynn, and Ali Murata: “Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) issued fewer adverse recommendations again this proxy season, opposing just 11.3% of director nominees, down from 12.7% in 2024 and 13.6% in 2023. Despite this reduced opposition, ISS’s influence remained stable. Directors receiving ISS support averaged 96.5% support, while those facing ISS …
Sights of the “Society of Corporate Governance” Conference
It was great seeing so many old friends – and meeting new ones – last week at the Society of Corporate Governance Annual Conference. Here are some pics from it: Microsoft’s Michael Pressman Constellation Energy’s Arden Phillips, BlackRock’s John Roe and Aon’s Dan Pliskin Prudential’s Peggy Foran Cooley’s Liz Dunshee and KPMG’s Rani Doyle Cooley’s Proxy Season Wristbands! Jones Day’s Bryan Brown, 2engage’s Dwayne Hampton …
Nevada Enacts Law to Provide More Statutory Liability Protections
Recently, Nevada passed new legislation (AB 239) to amend the Nevada Revised Statutes to provide a number of statutory liability protections, including de-emphasizing the use of Delaware case law in interpreting Nevada law. Here are five key aspects of this new legislation: 1. Modernizing fiduciary duty for controlling stockholders Nevada now defines a controlling stockholder based on actual voting power (enough to elect a board …