The PCAOB recently issued a new Audit Focus report on engagement acceptance by accounting firms. Like most PCAOB publications targeted toward auditors, this one is also worth reading by public company audit committees and their advisors. The report covers a variety of issues that auditors should consider before accepting particular engagements. This excerpt lays out questions that auditors should consider in connection with any new engagement:
– Were there any recent changes in ownership, company management, the board of directors, or the composition of the audit committee related to the prospective engagement? What were the reasons for the changes?
– What are the qualifications of the company’s current management team and the audit committee associated with the prospective engagement, and do these qualifications enable them to execute their roles and responsibilities effectively?
– Has the audit firm considered any previous restatements or material weaknesses (e.g., nature of restatements, nature of deficiencies, whether they are long-standing, etc.)?
– Were there any risk factors that indicate that company management and those charged with governance lack integrity?
– Has the audit firm thoroughly considered whether its personnel are free from any obligation to, or interest in, the prospective engagement, company management, or the company’s owners?
– Is the audit firm independent or will the audit firm be able to become independent for the audit and professional engagement period?
– Does the audit firm have sufficient knowledge and experience or appropriate access to subject matter experts, including relevant industry expertise, to undertake the work?
– Was the company’s management or audit committee aware of any improper activities conducted by the former auditor during interim reviews or annual audits, including activities related to the supervision of the audit or to the engagement quality review?
– Was the company’s management or audit committee aware of any illegal acts identified by the predecessor auditor and not reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or any other relevant regulators?
The report also addresses inquiries that an audit firm must make if a company is changing auditors and reviews certain responsibilities of successor auditors. Audit committees and their advisors likely will find the report helpful in identifying potential areas of concern to a new auditor in connection with its engagement and in developing strategies to address those concerns.
Last week, in Hanna v. Paradise and Skillz Inc., (Del. Ch.; 7/25), the Delaware Chancery Court refused to dismiss insider trading allegations against corporate insiders arising out of their sales of company stock in a public offering conducted during a blackout period. mandated by the company’s insider trading policy. The plaintiff alleges that the company failed to disclose material negative information about its performance of which the board was aware until after the offering, which permitted insiders to sell their shares in the offering at an inflated price.
This case doesn’t involve a 10b-5 claim; instead, it’s a so-called “Brophy claim” alleging that the defendants’ actions involved a breach of fiduciary duty. The lawsuit was filed as a derivative action, so this decision focuses on issues like demand futility and director independence and does not address the substance of the plaintiff’s allegations. Chancellor McCormick declined to dismiss the case, so the possibility exists that she may address some of the more interesting issues raised by the case in subsequent proceedings.
Even if the Chancellor doesn’t address those issues, the case gives me an excuse to plug our upcoming “Securities Offerings During Blackout Periods” webcast – which I assure you will focus on the substantive issues surrounding a decision to move forward with a public offering during a blackout period.
We’ve put together a timely and topical agenda and assembled a terrific group of speakers for our “Proxy Disclosure & 22nd Annual Executive Compensation Conferences” to be held on October 21-22 at The Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. Sure, I’m in full salesman mode here, but you don’t have to take my word for it when it comes to the quality of our speakers – just look at the SEC’s recent Executive Compensation Disclosure Roundtable, where our speakers were featured onevery panel!
If you follow our blogs, you know that there’s a lot going on in the world of securities regulation and corporate governance. The SEC is taking a hard look at executive comp disclosure requirements, DEI disclosure practices continue to evolve, and we’ve seen numerous important developments in activist strategies and tactics, shareholder proposals, and Delaware law during the first half of the year. You can’t afford to miss out on the critical guidance on these and other topics that our speakers will provide at our Conferences.
Register now to take advantage of our “Early Bird” rate – a 20% discount on the single in-person attendee fee. That rate expires on July 25th, which is just over two weeks from now, so register for our PDEC Conferences today! We hope to see you there in person, but as always, we have a virtual option for those of you who are unable to travel to Las Vegas for the event. You can sign up online or reach out to our team to register by emailing info@ccrcorp.com or calling 1.800.737.1271.
The SEC released the agenda for the upcoming meeting of its Small Business Advisory Committee, and the topic of finders is front and center. Here’s what the agenda item “Deep Dive on Finders” will address:
In 2020, the Commission proposed, but did not finalize, a limited, conditional exemption from broker registration for “finders” who assist companies with raising capital in private markets from accredited investors. In an ongoing effort to promote small business capital formation, including access to capital for founders who are building businesses outside of prominent entrepreneurial hubs or without robust capital-raising networks, the Committee will explore issues surrounding “finders.”
To facilitate discussion and deepen the Committee’s understanding of “finders” and provide historical regulatory context, members will hear from SEC staff in the Division of Trading and Markets who will provide an overview of the 2020 proposal and share certain feedback from commentors. Thereafter, the Committee will have the opportunity to learn more about the role of “finders” and possible regulatory solutions from industry practitioners. As part of this discussion, the Committee will explore potential principles, frameworks, conditions and safeguards that could permit certain “finders” to engage in limited capital-raising activities.
The agenda also provides for continuing the discussion of Regulation A that began at the Committee’s May 6th meeting.
Earlier this year, Commissioner Mark Uyeda indicated that a review of filer classifications and scaled disclosure requirements would be on the SEC’s agenda. Last month, the Society for Corporate Governance submitted this 8-page letter to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins with suggestions on modifying and scaling disclosures for small- and mid-cap public companies.
If you represent smaller companies, you’ll probably find a lot to like in the Society’s letter. This excerpt lays out suggested changes to 10-K & 10-Q disclosure requirements for SRCs:
Form 10-K/10-Q-Related Simplifications: We respectfully request that the Commission:
– remove the requirement that SRCs’ audit reports include disclosure regarding critical accounting matters that an auditor identifies during the course of the audit, consistent with the treatment for EGCs.
– remove the requirement for all SRCs to provide an auditor attestation of internal control over financial reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404(b), which results from categorizing all SRCs as non-accelerated filers.
– revise Item 408(a) of Regulation S-K to exempt EGCs and SRCs from the requirement to provide quarterly disclosure regarding director and officer entrance into or termination of a Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement or non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement.
– revise the Rule 12b-25 deadlines and provide that, in the event of a filed Form 12b-25, an EGC or SRC may file their late Form 10-K or Form 10-Q within 30 days or 15 days, respectively, of the original due date (as opposed to 15 and five days, respectively).
The Society letter also suggests updating SRC thresholds and aligning filer statuses using a combination of public float and annual revenue based on the EGC annual revenue threshold. This would result in the two categories of filers:
– Registrants with a public float of less than $2 billion or annual revenues below $1.235 billion would qualify as both an SRC and non-accelerated filer (thereby aligning the two categories).
– Registrants with a public float of $2 billion or more and annual revenues of $1.235 billion or more would be large accelerated filers (and, therefore, will lose SRC status).
Other topics addressed in the Society’s letter include simplification of proxy and executive comp disclosures and Section 16 and Form 144 reporting. An appendix to the Society’s letter includes a chart detailing each of its proposals.
Gunster’s Bob Lamm likes what he sees in the Society’s letter, but thinks that the SEC also needs to consider that the SRC category casts a wide net, and that not all companies falling within it have the same compliance infrastructure and resources. Here’s an excerpt from his recent blog:
However, even if the SEC accepts the Society’s recommendations (as I hope it does), the companies that would qualify as SRCs range in size from nano- or micro-caps to companies of a substantial size. As a result, compliance with requirements applicable to SRCs generally may be relatively easy for companies at the larger end of the range but very challenging for those at the smaller end of the range. We have seen this time and again in the past, perhaps most clearly in the climate disclosure rules that have, thankfully, ridden off into the sunset, but the problem will unquestionably arise again and again in the future.
Bob also argues that treating all SRCs alike from a regulatory perspective is one of the factors that deters smaller companies from accessing the capital markets through an initial public offering.
You know, sometimes, it’s the little things. . . In that regard, here’s a big shoutout to the SEC for actions that it has taken this year to make Corp Fin’s Compliance & Disclosure Interpretations much easier for lawyers to work with. In January, the agency began marking updated versions of Corp Fin’s CDIs to reflect changes made to prior versions. Before that, people had to painstakingly review the changes to the original CDI themselves or – since the SEC usually just deleted the old version of the CDI in its entirety – depend on the kindness of strangers to figure out what had been tweaked.
That change was a huge help on its own, but yesterday we were all tipped off via a LinkedIn post to the fact that the SEC has now gone one step further and consolidated all of Corp Fin’s CDIs in a single page on the SEC’s website. As our tipper pointed out, that means everyone now has the ability to search for potentially relevant guidance simply by clicking Ctrl + F.
Also, just before the 4th of July holiday, Corp Fin posted an updated version of the Financial Reporting Manual, which now reflects the 2020 changes to the S-X acquired company financial statement rules. A summary of the changes is available on the Financial Reporting Manual page of the SEC’s website.
Last week, the DC Circuit affirmed a federal district court’s 2024 decision vacating the SEC’s 2020 rule that would have subjected proxy advisors to enhanced regulation by saying they engaged in the “solicitation” of proxies. In reaching its decision, the Court noted that the Exchange Act doesn’t define the term “solicitation,” and so it looked to evidence of its ordinary definition at the time the statute was enacted:
Contemporaneous dictionaries suggest that “to solicit” and “solicitation” entail seeking to persuade another to take a specific action. . . In short, extending the term “solicit” to encompass voting recommendations requested by another would go beyond the 1934 meaning.
And the same is true today. Between a proxy adviser and its client, it might be reasonable to say that the client “solicits” the adviser’s recommendation but that interpretation does not suggest that, in providing that recommendation, the adviser has “solicited” the client’s vote. The adviser, although it holds itself out to attract clients, does not initiate the exchange; it provides advice only in response to the client’s request. In other words, the solicitation runs in the opposite direction to the one suggested by NAM.
By contrast, a company director who hopes to obtain a particular outcome from a particular vote might “solicit” the proxy votes of shareholders in order to achieve his goal. Based on that understanding, we conclude that the ordinary meaning of “solicit” does not include entities that provide proxy voting recommendations requested by others, even if those recommendations influence the requestors’ eventual votes.
Barring an appeal to the SCOTUS, it appears that the proxy advisors have won this round – but they aren’t out of the woods yet. In addition to state initiatives like the legislation recently enacted in Texas, a new piece of proposed federal legislation was introduced in late June that would prohibit proxy advisors from issuing voting advice in any situation where they have a conflict of interest – which the proposed legislation defines as broadly as you think it would.
The latest issue of The Corporate Executive newsletter has been sent to the printer. It is also available now online to members of TheCorporateCounsel.net who subscribe to the electronic format. This issue includes Dave’s observations on areas that the Commission should consider if it decides to proceed with overhauling its executive compensation disclosure rules – as well as these other practical topics:
– Clawbacks: The Process After a Decision to Restate
– New Staff Guidance on Clawback Disclosures
– Unlock Luck with a Winning Strategy — Join Us in Vegas!
If you are not already receiving the important updates we provide in The Corporate Executive newsletter, please email info@ccrcorp.com to or call 1.800.737.1271 to subscribe to this essential resource.
Winston & Strawn looked at 2025 Fortune 100 proxy filings, and their recent blog says that the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting DEI programs have influenced the way that public companies talk about DEI in their proxy statements:
An overwhelming majority (68 out of 74 companies reviewed) of public Fortune 100 companies parsed back references to DEI initiatives in their proxy statements in at least some way. A number of public companies took a literal approach and reduced the frequency with which the words “diversity” or “diverse” appear in their proxy statements. Others chose to qualify any mention of “diversity” with phrases such as “of experiences and backgrounds” instead of explicitly mentioning gender or race. Some companies took deliberate steps to minimize the visibility of their diversity matrices, such as rendering them in gray scale, shrinking their size, or including them in less-prominent sections of the proxy statement.
A handful of companies eliminated any mention of diversity entirely, but the more common approach was to repackage the same information in a more scaled-back form, presumably to mitigate legal and regulatory risk. Out of 74 companies reviewed, 38 companies highlighted women directors/general board gender diversity, 33 companies highlighted racially diverse directors, and only two companies highlighted LGBTQ+ directors.
The blog also says that after the 5th Cir.’s decision to invalidate Nasdaq’s Board Diversity Rule, many companies have opted to eliminate board diversity matrix disclosure. Winston & Strawn found that only three of the 14 Fortune 100 Nasdaq-listed companies it reviewed, only three continued to include the diversity matrix in their 2025 proxy statements.
