TheCorporateCounsel.net

November 13, 2013

Today’s Spreecast: “Crafting SEC Rulemaking Comment Letters”

Come participate in today’s spreecast: “Crafting SEC Rulemaking Comment Letters.” During it, Hunton & Williams’ Scott Kimpel and Bass Berry’s Jay Knight will describe how to best craft a persuasive comment letter on a SEC rulemaking. This will certainly be handy for those of you writing in on the SEC’s pay ratio proposal. To access the spreecast, go here at 1 pm eastern. [Note last month’s “Latest Corp Fin Comment Letter Trends” spreecast has had over 500 views.]

Here are FAQs about how spreecasts work – but the upshot is you have to register for Spreecast first (although it’s possible to watch without registering if you close a prompt). Simply sign up by using an email address by clicking the “Or sign up via email” link in the upper right hand side of the site (it’s in small print under the “Connect with Facebook” logo).

An International Set of Governance Principles for Corporate Secretaries

Last week, the Corporate Secretaries International Association posted the “Governance Principles for Corporate Secretaries.” As you can imagine, the principles are high level…

2013 Spencer Stuart Board Index

Here’s some highlights from the recently issued “2013 Spencer Stuart Board Index,” which tracks S&P 500 boards:

– 50% of new directors are retired; 38% are 1st-timers and 53% serve on no other outside boards
– Average age of directors is now 63, up from 60 a decade ago
– Most desired profiles for new directors include minorities (56%); women (54%) and active CEOs/COOs (54%)
– Mandatory retirement ages are going higher; 88% set it at 72 or older, versus 46% a decade ago. Nearly one-quarter have a retirement age of 75 or older versus 3% a decade ago.
– 91% now have annual director elections.
– More split the role of chair and CEO – 45% in 2013 compared to 23% a decade ago; but only 25% have a truly independent chair, a non-executive or a former executive director who over time has met the NYSE or NASDAQ independence standards.

– Broc Romanek