TheCorporateCounsel.net

February 18, 2005

Last Minute Proxy Season Planning

We have posted the transcript from our popular webcast, “Last Minute Planning for the Proxy Season.”

The SEC’s 2006 Budget

On Wednesday, the SEC posted this “Budget in Brief” analysis of its 2006 budget. But it ain’t brief – its 48 pages. Corp Fin’s piece of that pie will be approximately $100 million (down from $102 million in 2005). Corp Fin anticipates that it will review 4,720 reporting companies’ filings in 2006, which is equivalent to 38% of the reporting companies and is a 4% increase from the level it anticipates for fiscal 2005.

As always, the SEC will be a cash cow for the government, with anticipated Section 6(b) and Section 31 fees of $1.435 billion collected during 2006. The SEC doesn’t get to keep any of the money it collects. It all goes into the US Treasury – and then the Commission is at the whim of Congress to approve its budget each year.

WorldCom Judge Corrects Opinion

The WorldCom court issued a corrected opinion on February 14th on the proposed settlement of the outside directors, correcting footnote 14 on page 24 of the February 9th opinion by changing the word “only” to “not.” We have posted the corrected opinion in “Alerts” on the home page of TheCorporateCounsel.net.