TheCorporateCounsel.net

Last year, Liz blogged about the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment’s lawsuit challenging Nasdaq’s board diversity disclosure rule.  Late last month, the CII filed an amicus brief along with a group of institutional investors & other organizations in support of the rule.  Here’s the CII’s statement on the filing of the brief, which appears on the homepage of its website:

On February 25, CII and seven other groups filed a joint amicus brief in support of the SEC in a lawsuit challenging the agency’s approval August 6 of Nasdaq rules that require companies listed on the exchange to disclose diversity statistics on their boards of directors. The brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, argues that many investors and investment advisors believe board diversity is a material benefit to companies and consider board diversity—or the lack of it—when casting votes for directors who serve on the nominating and governance committee. Other organizations co-signing the brief are: Ariel Investments; Boston Trust Walden; Gaingels; the Investment Adviser Association; Lord, Abbett; Northern Trust Investments; and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights.

The CII’s action follows on the heels of the decision of 17 states to file an amicus brief opposing the rules in late January. This CFO Dive article has additional details on that filing.

– John Jenkins