August 25, 2016
Hi. I’m the New Guy.
Hello everybody, I’m John Jenkins – the newest editor here at TheCorporateCounsel.net. Some of you may have noticed me lurking around the “Q&A Forums” while Broc has been struggling valiantly to get me up to speed. You’re going to be hearing more from me over the next several weeks, so I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself.
I’m a partner in the Cleveland office of Calfee, Halter & Griswold, where I’ve worked since I started my career in 1986. I’ve worn a lot of hats over the past 30 years – capital markets, Exchange Act compliance, public and private M&A, SEC & SRO investigations, board and special committee work, etc. I also taught a law school M&A class for 10 years. You tend to cast a pretty wide net in a mid-sized firm – and I hope that’s given me a perspective that you’ll find interesting.
Broc & I first connected back in 2003, when he invited me to join his advisory board after I gave a presentation on some obscure aspect of Sarbanes-Oxley at an ABA meeting. Since then, I’ve done a number of webcasts and written several articles for Deal Lawyers – and even did a bit of blogging on the DealLawyers.com site a few years ago. I’ve always thought TheCorporateCounsel.net family of sites was a great resource, and I’m really looking forward to my new role here.
That brings me to the point of this post – Broc has decided to head out for a real vacation (with no email!). After 15 years or so, everybody deserves a little time off. He told me when to feed the dog & water the plants, gave me his Netflix password & the keys to the Chevy, and then basically said – “You’re on your own, pal. Don’t burn the place down.”
So, for the next few weeks, I’ll be handling the blogging and other duties on this site, DealLawyers.com and CompensationStandards.com. Remember when you were a 16 year-old first learning to drive? Yeah, I’m that kid, except I’m a lot older and have a much slower reaction time. So, I guess what I’m saying is – fasten your seatbelts, because this may be a bumpy ride.
Shareholder Approval: NYSE Revises Bunch of Its “Equity Compensation Plan FAQs”
As Mike Melbinger blogged on CompensationStandards.com yesterday, the NYSE revised its “Equity Compensation Plan FAQs” recently for the first time in nearly a decade. The revised FAQs are the ones that have “Clarified August 18, 2016” written beneath them. As Mike blogs, FAQ C-1 clarifies the NYSE’s position that an amendment of an equity incentive play to allow for maximum tax withholding is not necessarily a “material amendment”…
September-October Issue: Deal Lawyers Print Newsletter
This September-October issue of the Deal Lawyers print newsletter has been posted – & also sent to the printers – and includes articles on:
– “This is the Business We’ve Chosen…”
– Shareholder Votes & Standards of Judicial Review
– Schedule 13G “Passive” Investor Status: When Being a Little Active Is Still Passive!
– Delaware Upholds Decision on Mis-Valuation of Cancelled Stock Options
– A Primer on Private Equity: Basics for Counsel to Middle Market Companies
Remember that – as a “thank you” to those that subscribe to both DealLawyers.com & our Deal Lawyers print newsletter – we are making all issues of the Deal Lawyers print newsletter available online for the first time. There is a big blue tab called “Back Issues” near the top of DealLawyers.com – 2nd from the end of the row of tabs. This tab leads to all of our issues, including the most recent one.
And a bonus is that even if only one person in your firm is a subscriber to the Deal Lawyers print newsletter, anyone who has access to DealLawyers.com will be able to gain access to the Deal Lawyers print newsletter. For example, if your firm has a firmwide license to DealLawyers.com – and only one person subscribes to the print newsletter – everybody in your firm will be able to access the online issues of the print newsletter. That is real value. Here are FAQs about the Deal Lawyers print newsletter including how to access the issues online. Try a “Free for Rest of ’16” no risk trial now!
– John Jenkins