TheCorporateCounsel.net

In this year of many anniversaries, the twentieth anniversary of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is fast approaching on July 30. While most remember the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for its focus on auditors and internal controls, the Act and the events that surrounded it changed the face of corporate governance at public companies.

With all that has happened in corporate governance over the past two decades, it is difficult to recall just how low corporate governance standards were in the run-up to the early 2000s corporate scandals that ultimately prompted Congress to enact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Act, and the continuing fallout from Enron, WorldCom and the many other corporate meltdowns of the era, in turn prompted the SEC and the stock exchanges to embark on a frenzied rulemaking and standard-setting effort that set the stage for the robust corporate governance environment that remains with us to this day.

As part of my efforts to document the history of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance for the SEC Historical Society’s virtual museum and archive, I will be hosting a program on July 21 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm eastern time titled The Sarbanes-Oxley Act at 20: A Corporate Governance Legacy. This program will feature Harvey Pitt, Alan Beller, Shelley Parratt and Annemarie Tierney. I encourage you to register for this virtual event, it will be a very interesting discussion.

– Dave Lynn