TheCorporateCounsel.net

When Delaware Chief Justice Leo Strine announced that he’d be leaving the bench this fall, Broc speculated that grander things were yet to come. Now, the influential judge is kicking off his “retirement” with a bang – by publishing this proposal that would recommit to “New Deal” concepts. In particular, the proposal focuses on workers’ rights and a reformed shareholder voting/proposal process (e.g. requiring a “say-on-pay” vote only once every 4 years and changing shareholder proposal thresholds).

This isn’t a big surprise given some of Chief Justice Strine’s prior comments. But it’s more comprehensive. And while he doesn’t go as far as Senator Warren’s “Accountable Capitalism Act,” he does comment that companies are “societally chartered institutions” – notable for a Delaware judge! – and proposes requiring “workforce committees” for boards of all large companies (whether public or private). Here’s an excerpt on that point (and also see this Cooley blog):

To make sure that companies give careful consideration to worker concerns at the board level, the Proposal requires the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board to jointly develop rules that would require the boards of companies with more than $1 billion in annual sales to create and maintain a committee focused on workforce concerns. By requiring these committees at all large corporations, not just public corporations, more accountability would be imposed on large private companies, such as those owned by private equity firms, to treat their workforce fairly.

These workforce committees would be focused on addressing fair gain sharing between workers and investors, the workers’ interest in training that assures continued employment, and the workers’ interest in a safe and tolerant workplace. These workforce committees would also consider whether the company uses substitute forms of labor—such as contractors—to fulfill important corporate needs, and whether those contractors pay their workers fairly, provide safe working conditions, and are operating in an ethical way, and are not simply being used to inflate corporate profits at the expense of continuing employment and fair compensation for direct company employees.

Offering a middle-ground between the current system and “codetermination”-style worker representation, the committees would be required to develop and disclose a plan for consulting directly with the company’s workers about important worker matters such as compensation and benefits, opportunities for advancement, and training. Finally, the National Labor Relations Act would be amended to ensure that companies can use dedicated committees to consult with their workers without running afoul of the Act’s prohibition on “dominating” labor organizations, provided that the company doesn’t interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights to collective bargaining and self-organization. In essence, this would allow for European-style “works councils” without impeding union formation and representation.

Should the SEC Get Out of the “Stakeholder Disclosure” Business?

I think most securities practitioners can agree that it’s exhausting to shoehorn certain Congressional mandates for broader ’33 & ’34 Act reporting into the SEC’s mission to protect investors – and when these types of mandates come around, they also seem to be at odds with the Commission’s mission to facilitate capital formation. At the same time, a variety of stakeholders are clamoring for information, and the SEC runs the main disclosure game in town.

This paper by Tulane law prof Ann Lipton plays some of the same notes as Chief Justice Strine’s proposal (and it was actually published before his). For example, that it’s outdated to make disclosure requirements dependent on a company’s capital raising strategy. Here’s part of the abstract:

This Article recommends that we explicitly acknowledge the importance of disclosure for noninvestor audiences, and discuss the feasibility of designing a disclosure system geared to their interests. In so doing, this Article excavates the historical pedigree of proposals for stakeholder-oriented disclosure. Both in the Progressive Era, and again during the 1970s, efforts to create generalized corporate disclosure obligations were commonplace. In each era, however, they were redirected towards investor audiences, in the expectation that investors would serve as a proxy for the broader society. As this Article establishes, that compromise is no longer tenable.

Who would regulate this brave new world? Personally, I think that if the SEC’s mission was expanded, it would be well-suited to take on the challenge – but I’m not sure they’d want the job. Here’s what Ann suggests:

There is currently no federal agency with the skills to manage the system contemplated here. The SEC is not equipped to manage disclosures intended for noninvestors (which is another reason the securities laws should not be used for that purpose). The Federal Trade Commission has broad experience studying business activity, but has fewer disclosure mandates. That said, the SEC and the FTC both have skills and experience that would be useful in developing a new system: both study a wide range of industries, and the SEC in particular has expertise in developing standardized reporting for public audiences, balanced against the costs to businesses of complying with disclosure demands.

Therefore, it might be appropriate to create a joint initiative that draws on the resources and knowledge of both agencies. The initiative could begin its work by studying how public information about corporations is used by noninvestor audiences, including surveying local regulators, as well as advocacy and trade groups, for their input as to how existing disclosures are used and the weaknesses in the current system. Based on the results of this survey, the initiative could develop a standardized framework that would permit meaningful comparisons across reporting companies.

New! Quick Survey on Hedging Policy Disclosure

At our conference a few weeks ago a few weeks ago (which you can still register & watch via video archive), there were a lot of questions about how companies will handle the newly required hedging policy disclosure. Take a moment to participate in our 3-question “Quick Survey on Hedging Policy Disclosure” and see what others are planning to do.

– Liz Dunshee