C-Suite Compensation Center

On July 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules and supplemented interpretative guidance that modify the proxy rules as applied to proxy advisory firms and clarify the fiduciary duties of investment advisers when voting proxies.  One of our rising stars (Chelsea Lomprey) did the heavy lifting in drafting a client alert on the subject, and such can be found HERE.

To help issuers prepare for the upcoming proxy season, and as a follow-up to our prior post entitled "Compensation Considerations for the 2020 Proxy Season," we are hosting a FREE webinar entitled "Upcoming Proxy Season: Compensatory Thoughts from ISS (an Annual Program)" on Thursday, January 16, 2020 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am Central [Register here].  The purpose of this webinar is to discuss compensatory thoughts and trends of institutional shareholder advisory services such as ISS, including:

• New compensation pronouncements and positions of ISS since the 2019 proxy season;

As we head into a new proxy season, we would like to invite you to attend our annual FREE webinar entitled "Upcoming Proxy Season: Compensatory Thoughts from ISS," which will be held on Thursday, January 17, 2019 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am Central.  As always, continuation education credits are available.

For your convenience, our remaining 2019 monthly webinar program is as follows:

Just a quick note that late last week ISS made available for public comment nine discreet voting policies for potential application in 2019.   Only one of the draft voting policies addresses compensation, and it addresses the Financial Performance Assessment Methodology under the Pay-for-Performance Model.

On September 13, 2018, the SEC withdrew two no-action letters issued in 2004 to two proxy advisory firms.  Some folks (like me!) are hopeful that the withdrawal of these no-action letters is a first step (albeit a small step) towards proxy advisory firm reform.  If you would like to learn more about this topic, please see our Firm's client alert entitled "Proxy Advisory Firm Guidance Withdrawn by the SEC," which our Firm published this morning.