Governance & Compliance Insider

Compliance with XBRL for Foreign Private Issuers that Prepare their Financial Statements in Accordance with IFRS Required Beginning with Annual Reports for Fiscal Periods Ending on or after December 15, 2017

Exchange Act Reporting and Disclosure Effectiveness / SEC Rulemaking

6 Mar, 2017

Compliance with XBRL for Foreign Private Issuers that Prepare their Financial Statements in Accordance with IFRS Required Beginning with Annual Reports for Fiscal Periods Ending on or after December 15, 2017

On March 1, 2017, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published the taxonomy for the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IFRS). Accordingly, foreign private issuers that prepare their financial statements in accordance with IFRS may immediately begin submitting their financial statements in SEC filings...

General Counsel Permitted to Use Attorney-Client Privileged Information in Whistleblower Retaliation Case

Ethics and Compliance

24 Feb, 2017

General Counsel Permitted to Use Attorney-Client Privileged Information in Whistleblower Retaliation Case

In a recent case, Wadler v. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. case number 3:15-cv-02356 (2016), the federal court in the Northern District of California ruled that the plaintiff and former general counsel of Bio-Rad Laboratories could use attorney-client privileged information to support his claim of whistleblower retaliation. The court determined that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistleblower protections preempt the state ethical rules against disclosure of attorney-client privileged information....

Shareholder Proposals Restricting Board/Management Access to Preliminary Voting Results May Be Excluded

Investor Relations and Communications / Proxy Statements and Annual Meetings / SEC Rulemaking / Shareholder Activism

13 Jan, 2017

Shareholder Proposals Restricting Board/Management Access to Preliminary Voting Results May Be Excluded

On January 6, 2017, the SEC Staff granted no-action relief that would allow companies to exclude shareholder proposals preventing management or the board from accessing preliminary voting results on uncontested matters prior to the annual meeting, including a running tally of votes for and against, and using that information to solicit votes. See, The Boeing Company, Ferro Corporation, Honeywell International Inc., L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc.,...

Remember New Item 16 When Filing Your Form 10-K This Year

Exchange Act Reporting and Disclosure Effectiveness / SEC Rulemaking

10 Jan, 2017

Remember New Item 16 When Filing Your Form 10-K This Year

For public companies whose fiscal year is the calendar year, the 10-K season is quickly approaching. One technical change to Form 10-K this year is the addition of new Item 16 (Form 10-K Summary). As you may recall, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, more commonly known as the FAST Act, which became law in December 2015, was primarily a transportation bill, but also contained...

Securities Law Matters to Consider for 2017

Equity Compensation / Exchange Act Reporting and Disclosure Effectiveness / Proxy Statements and Annual Meetings / SEC Rulemaking

9 Jan, 2017

Securities Law Matters to Consider for 2017

2016 was a busy year for securities law developments, with the SEC adopting and proposing new rules and issuing significant interpretations that will affect SEC reporting companies in the coming years. We have highlighted a few of these recent developments in this post as companies prepare for the upcoming reporting cycle. With the new incoming U.S. administration it is important to note that some of...

ISS Releases New and Updated FAQs on U.S. Equity Compensation Plans

Corporate Governance Committees, Policies and Practices / Equity Compensation / Executive Compensation and Disclosure / Investor Relations and Communications

22 Dec, 2016

ISS Releases New and Updated FAQs on U.S. Equity Compensation Plans

Last Friday, ISS released new and updated FAQS on U.S. Equity Compensation Plans, as summarized below. These FAQs provide new and updated guidance on ISS’s evaluation of equity compensation plan proposals, including treatment of performance-based awards in burn rate calculations, bundling of plan amendment proposals, updates to ISS’s Equity Plan Scorecard (EPSC) policies, and the EPSC as it applies to newly public companies. Since 2015,...

SEC Endorses Use of Conditional Offers to Buy Shares in IPOs

SEC Rulemaking / Securities Act Compliance

16 Dec, 2016

SEC Endorses Use of Conditional Offers to Buy Shares in IPOs

The SEC recently issued a no-action letter to Morgan Stanley that will streamline the process for its wealth management clients to participate in IPOs. The SEC said it would not object to Morgan Stanley’s proposed use of conditional offers to buy shares (“COBs”) prior to the effectiveness of IPO registration statements under specific conditions. The no-action request and the SEC’s letter confirm that COBs, if...

Guidance Provided by SEC on Abbreviated Debt Tender Offers

SEC Rulemaking / Securities Act Compliance

2 Dec, 2016

Guidance Provided by SEC on Abbreviated Debt Tender Offers

On November 18, 2016, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a set of compliance and disclosure interpretations (“C&DIs”) pertaining to abbreviated debt tender offers, which were the subject of an SEC no-action letter in early 2015. The new C&DIs offer important clarifications regarding abbreviated debt tender offers and the previous no-action letter guidance. Read more in our full summary here: https://www.dorsey.com/newsresources/publications/client-alerts/2016/11/guidance-provided-by-sec

Board Governance and Compensation / Proxy Statements and Annual Meetings / Shareholder Activism

2 Dec, 2016

Recent Developments in Proxy Access

As the 2017 proxy season begins to unfold, proxy access continues to be a focus of shareholder proposals. Last year, companies that had already adopted mainstream proxy access bylaws, or that were planning to put mainstream proxy access bylaws up for a shareholder vote, were largely successful in being able to exclude shareholder proposals to adopt proxy access bylaws on the grounds that such proposals...

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