TheCorporateCounsel.net

November 17, 2011

ISS Releases 2012 Proxy Voting Policies

The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here! Moments ago, ISS released its 2012 updates for its US, Canadian, European and international proxy voting guidelines.

By the way, ISS’s Ted Allen blogged yesterday that a second proxy access proposal has now been submitted to a company – this time to Textron – by the US Proxy Exchange.

The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower Issues Its First Annual Report

As blogged by Vanessa Schoenthaler yesterday, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower has issued its first annual report as required by Dodd-Frank. The report only covers a 7-week period, from the effective date of the final whistleblower rules through the SEC’s fiscal year-end even though tips reported before the final whistleblower rules went into effect are potentially eligible for whistleblower rewards.

Vanessa notes that “During the seven weeks for which data is available, the Commission received 334 whistleblower tips. Among these, the most common complaints related to market manipulation (54), offering fraud (52) and corporate disclosures and financial statements (51). Note, however, these tips were categorized by the whistleblowers themselves, not the Commission, and there are 84 that were submitted under the category of “other” or without a category at all, so it’s hard to say how accurate this information really is.”

Tune into our upcoming webcast – “Updating Your Whistleblower Procedures: How to Apply Six Sigma and Lean Methodologies” – that will be held on Wednesday, November 30th.

Compensation Standards Newsletter: Fall Issue Now Available

For members of CompensationStandards.com, we have posted the Fall 2011 Issue of our Compensation Standards newsletter that contains practical guidance pulled from our successful pair of executive pay conferences. With Dave Lynn and Mark Borges wrapping up the 2012 Edition of Lynn, Borges & Romanek’s “Executive Compensation Disclosure Treatise & Reporting Guide”- about half of the updated Chapters of the Treatise are already posted on CompensationStandards.com – we thought it was best to compile a select group of the Talking Points as our Fall issue (attendees of the Conferences received the entire 200-page set; you can still register to watch the archived video of the Conferences) since it’s too late to insert them in the upcoming edition of the Treatise.

If you wish to order a hard-copy of the Treatise so you receive it as soon as it’s printed, try this No-Risk Trial to the Hard-Copy of Executive Compensation Treatise.

– Broc Romanek