TheCorporateCounsel.net

Yesterday, the SEC gave us a little holiday present when it announced that the releasing of comment letters and response letters would be reduced to “no earlier than 20 business days” from when Staff review is complete from the “no earlier than 45 days” standard that has been in effect since these types of documents were first made public in ’05. The new standard commences on January 1st.

Note that the new standard uses “business days” rather than mere “days” in it – so the reduction is roughly a third, not a half as might appear at first blush. Yes, I’m a lawyer who loves the fine print…

Three interesting pieces of Senate testimony yesterday:

– Enforcement Director Rob Khuzami on applying insider trading laws to Congress
– Corp Fin Director Meredith Cross/Deputy Lona Nallengara on spurring job growth through capital formation
– Chair Mary Schapiro on implementing Dodd-Frank – before the Agriculture Committee of all things…

We Make the ABA Blawg 100: 4th Year in a Row!

We are grateful that our blog has made the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 for the fourth year in a row. You may recall that our blog won the voting contest among the 100 two years ago (the first year that the Journal put the Blawg 100 head-to-head in a round of voting) and we were winning it last year until the last day when two other blogs mysteriously received a huge number of votes. This year, we aren’t actively campaigning – but if you care to vote, here are the steps you need to take:

a. If you voted last year:

1. You likely need to recover your password by simply inputting your email address. You will promptly receive an email with your password and screen name in it.

2. Once you have your password, you should login to their site

3. Once logged in, go to the “Business Law” category and scroll down to TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog (it’s at the 3rd from the top) and click on the blue “Vote Now” symbol to the left of that.

b. If you didn’t vote last year:

1. Register to vote – it’s free (if you’re an ABA member, your ABA id/password won’t work for the ABA Journal’s site unfortunately as they are separate)

2. Once you get your password, you should login

3. Once logged in, go to the “Business Law” category and scroll down to TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog (it’s at the 3rd from the top) and click on the blue “Vote Now” symbol to the left of that.

This faux news video is hilarious!

Three More Proxy Access Proposals Filed, Etc.

Proxy access, proxy access, proxy access. Say that three times fast. Here are three items as food for thought:

– Ted Allen of ISS blogs about access shareholder proposals submitted by Ken Steiner to three more companies (total of five so far).

– Professor Larry Hamermesh’s blog that contains more on the back and forth on precatory proxy access proposals.

– A new model proxy access bylaw – built for the private ordering world that we now live in – from Chuck Nathan at Latham & Watkins.

– Broc Romanek