TheCorporateCounsel.net

August 17, 2006

Just Added! Corp Fin Director John White

We are excited to announce that the Director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance – John White – will open our two-day Conference on September 11-12: “Implementing the SEC’s New Executive Compensation Disclosures: What You Need to Do Now,” as noted in this detailed conference agenda. Learn what to expect from the SEC Staff from the Staffer who presided over the new rules!

And we just added a senior actuary from Towers Perrin – Tim Marnell – to the “The New Retirement Pay Tables” panel. When you hear what Tim has to say, you will realize how challenging those tables (and the related SCT column) will be!

A few Conference items to note:

1. Ensure you are registered, particularly if you delegated getting registered to someone else in your office. I have interacted with several members who thought they had registered – but it hadn’t happened yet. We are dreading the inevitable last-minute rush during the week of Labor Day. Please don’t procrastinate!

2. Ensure your registration is in the form you want it to be. Our experience with our popular annual Executive Compensation Conferences is that a lot of people show up in-person for the Conference – but they had only registered for webcast attendance (which is a little cheaper). We won’t turn away those people at the door, but the processing takes some time. Save yourself the hassle!

Available in Word! The New Compensation Tables!

Thanks to Faegre & Benson, we have just posted a copy of the SEC’s new compensation tables in Word on CompensationStandards.com in our “The SEC’s New Rules” Practice Area.

Proxy Statements: Disclosure of Rule 10b5-1 Plans

In reviewing this salesforce.com proxy statement, I saw something I haven’t run into for a while: disclosure about the Rule 10b5-1 sales plans that have been implemented by various officers and directors – in a separate section following the discussion of employment contracts and certain transactions, the company identifies which officers and directors have entered into such plans on page 17.

While I’ve seen plenty of Rule 10b5-1 plans disclosed in press releases and Form 8-Ks, this is only the second time I’ve seen the topic covered in a proxy statement (Plantronics has had similar disclosure in its proxy statements for each of the past two years). Note that I am not advocating that companies make such disclosure nor do I claim that’s it’s required – I’m just pointing out some novel disclosure…

The Law Firm That We Know All Too Well

Some wise guy has written a fictitious book – “Anonymous Lawyer: The Novel” – about a crude law firm. I figure I don’t need to read the book since I’ve already lived it (and re-lived it in my nightmares).

Much more interesting is the author’s hilarious web site for the fake firm. My favorite lawyer is Patrick Weinberg – reminds me of my own associate skills back in the day!