TheCorporateCounsel.net

In the wake of Corp Fin’s new Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I, we have scheduled a webcast for tomorrow, Tuesday, November 14th – “Shareholder Proposals: Corp Fin Speaks” – during which Davis Polk’s Ning Chiu will ask Corp Fin’s Matt McNair about how the new SLB should be applied in practice. This webcast is freely available – even to nonmembers.

As reflected in the memos posted in our “Shareholder Proposals” Practice Area, there are a number of open issues to consider after the SLB – particularly logistical issues about how boards can timely act to qualify for the Staff’s new “ordinary business” position…

Governance: Do Companies Really Need an LTSE to Think Long-Term?

Over on “The Mentor Blog,” Broc recently blogged about the Long-Term Stock Exchange – a proposed new stock exchange designed to promote a long-term approach to governance. Among other innovations, the LTSE would impose a moratorium on guidance and embrace tenure voting.

This recent blog from Andrew Abramowitz asks whether we really need a new exchange to accomplish a more long-term approach by companies:

What is less clear to me is why it has to be a new stock exchange that is the mechanism for implementing these changes. There is no reason why any company listed on the NYSE or Nasdaq cannot (with appropriate internal board and stockholder approval) voluntarily comply with all the requirements that LTSE imposes.

Assuming there could be broad agreement on a set of standards for long-term orientation – perhaps a group of law and business professors can create and update something like that – then any public company can voluntarily decide to adhere to those standards and publicize that fact.

November-December Issue: Deal Lawyers Print Newsletter

This November-December issue of the Deal Lawyers print newsletter was just posted – & also sent to the printers – and includes articles on:

– Setting the Record Straight: Regulation G Doesn’t Apply to M&A Forecasts
– Structuring Asset Deals: “Traditional” vs. “Our Watch, Your Watch” Constructs
– Controlling Stockholders: Forging Ahead With “Entire Fairness”
(Or Playing It Safer)
– PRC Acquirors: How M&A Agreements Handle Risks & Challenges

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. 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.

– John Jenkins