TheCorporateCounsel.net

Meredith recently hosted a Pay & Proxy Podcast on “DEI Disclosures and Metrics Following the January 2025 Executive Orders.” She was joined by Maj Vaseghi and Betty Huber, both of whom are Latham partners, and Mark Borges, who is a principal at Compensia and an editor at CompensationStandards.com. This 27-minute podcast addressed a wide range of disclosure and compensation-related issues associated with DEI programs and metrics, including:

– Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and private sector cases involving Section 1981 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
– The recent Executive Orders including the directive to federal agencies to identify potential “compliance investigations” aimed at deterring DEI programs constituting “illegal” discrimination
– How companies are considering legal risk, political risk, talent risk and business risk in preparing disclosures
– Companies, especially government contractors, weighing changes to the use of DEI metrics in compensation programs
– Disclosures regarding DEI metrics in compensation programs
– Human capital management disclosures in Form 10-Ks
– Required and voluntary board diversity disclosures in proxy statements after vacatur of Nasdaq’s “disclose or comply” board diversity rule
– ISS’s announcement that it will indefinitely halt consideration of certain diversity factors in making vote recommendations on director elections
– Voluntary proxy disclosures on DEI policies and practices
– Looking at committee charters and corporate governance guidelines
– Weighing whether to maintain the timing or delay publishing voluntary ESG reports
– Setting metrics for 2025 compensation program

These podcasts are ordinarily available exclusively to members of CompensationStandards.com, but we know many of our members are struggling with issues arising out of the recent anti-DEI executive orders, so we decided to make this podcast available to members of TheCorporateCounsel.net as well. If you’re looking for more high-quality, practical insights into executive compensation issues, you need a subscription to CompensationStandards.com. If you’re not yet a subscriber, you can sign up for a membership today online or by emailing sales@ccrcorp.com or by calling us at 800-737-1271.

– John Jenkins