TheCorporateCounsel.net

Paranoia will destroy ya. A few weeks ago, I blogged about “How to Deal With ‘Occupy Your Annual Meeting‘.” I mentioned how companies should not overreact to the demonstrations that mainly are part of the Occupy movement (see this 5-minute video of the demonstrations outside of Cigna’s annual meeting). So far, things have gone fairly smoothly although EQT had its meeting delayed for a few hours (hat tip to the Society of Corporate Secretaries for alerting me to that).

What has blown my mind is that the city of Charlotte appears to have taken it upon itself to apply the “war-time rules” that it will use for the Democratic National Convention later this year for the Bank of America and Duke Energy shareholder meetings. As noted in this Charlotte Observer article, the police have expanded powers during these meetings – even allowing them to prohibit people from carrying backpacks, satchels and coolers into the designated public places. As noted in this article, four people were arrested yesterday outside BofA’s meeting.

Good grief. I am all for being prepared for an annual shareholders meeting and preventing harm, but this development sure smacks of Big Brother, as noted in this Huffington Post blog. Below are pics that a member sent me from outside the BofA meeting yesterday…

JOBS Act: Trading & Markets Issues Six FAQs on Crowdfunding Portals

On Monday, the SEC’s Division of Trading & Markets issued six FAQs on crowdfunding portals.

The ABA’s Business Law Section has submitted this comment letter on the JOBS Act to the SEC…

Deregistration Under JOBS Act

In this podcast, David Scileppi of Gunster discusses the process of deregistration under the JOBS Act – and provides some practice tips, including:

– How does JOBS Act facilitate ability of banks to deregister?
– What is the SEC Staff’s guidance on this so far?
– What is the process for banks to follow if they determine they are eligible to deregister?
– Any surprises when doing one of these deregistrations?

– Broc Romanek