July 2, 2008
Delaware Supreme Court: CA/AFSCME Certification Accepted and Fast Tracked
Yesterday, the Delaware Supreme Court accepted the questions certified to it by the SEC relating to the battle between CA and AFSCME over the proponent’s binding bylaw proposal seeking reimbursement for third-party solicitations. The Court sure didn’t lose any time taking the case – and look at the quick briefing and argument schedule they have set (given CA’s mailing date is July 17th, this was necessary): briefs are due on Monday, July 7; oral argument is scheduled for July 9. We will have a guest blogger giving us news live from the hearing.
We have posted the Supreme Court’s order in our “Shareholder Proposal” Practice Area.
SEC Announces “21st Century Disclosure Initiative”
Last week, the SEC revealed a long-standing project – dubbed the “21st Century Disclosure Initiative” – that now will be conducted by a team led by Dr. Bill Lutz. Corp Fin has been quietly working on this project for several years.
It’s a pretty far-ranging project where anything could happen; for example, the notion of forms being required is up-for-grabs (see IR Web Report for more). The idea is to rethink the entire disclosure framework in the wake of new technology and changes in investor needs; a clean slate to envision how the reporting framework would be created if today were ’33 and ’34.
The first part of this study is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with a “blueprint” of a new framework being the ultimate goal. This is pretty interesting stuff. I can’t help but chuckle because a decade ago, the “Aircraft Carrier” was widely panned as trying to take on too much at once…
SEC Chairman Cox Responds to WSJ Criticism
I hadn’t planned on blogging about the scathing criticism of SEC Chairman Cox in this WSJ article – that delves into details of where the Chairman was during the Bear Stearns crisis, etc. – but I can’t help it now that a response of the Chairman to the SEC Staff was the subject of this CFO.com article.
Did the Chairman’s office provide a copy of his internal memo to CFO.com? If so, as someone who served in Congress, I would expect thicker skin if the “internal” memo was indeed leaked by the former Representative from California.
Our July Eminders is Posted!
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– Broc Romanek