At the end of January, partners Daniel Ilan and Alexis Collins participated in a panel co-hosted by The Conference Board and Cleary Gottlieb to discuss cybersecurity and board oversight.

Moderator Doug Chia, executive director of The Conference Board, Nick Mankovich, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”) at medical technology firm Becton Dickinson, Daniel, and Alexis discussed current cybersecurity risks, how cyber-attacks are changing, and the role that management and the board should play in ensuring that companies are prepared. Continue Reading Cleary Partners Participate in Panel Discussion on Cybersecurity and Board Oversight

On February 6, 2019, as companies around the United States busy themselves for the annual ritual of parsing their D&O questionnaires, finalizing their proxy statements and submitting them to the board for approval, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released two identical new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“C&DIs”) regarding disclosure, principally in proxy statements, relating to director backgrounds and diversity policies used by nominating committees in evaluating director candidates.  Continue Reading Reading Diversity Into Regulation S-K

The market reaction to reports of harassment and misconduct in the wake of the #MeToo movement has led to a re-evaluation of the materiality of these complaints from a due diligence perspective, both in the context of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and securities offerings. Companies and lawyers therefore need to re-examine the due diligence process, its role in considering harassment and misconduct claims, and how the process in M&A and securities offerings should be tailored to ensure the complete disclosure of these claims.

This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of PLC Magazine. Read the full article here.

On January 29, 2019, the SEC announced four settlements with publicly-traded companies for failure to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting.

None of the companies was charged with making false or inaccurate statements, either about its ICFR or otherwise; indeed, each had repeatedly disclosed material weaknesses in ICFR over many years.

These cases are interesting for at least three reasons:

  • They were announced together to send a message about the SEC’s focus on its agenda to strengthen accounting and controls at public companies.
  • The cases are about controls, and not about disclosure. Material weaknesses in ICFR are not just a disclosure issue: a continuing failure to maintain adequate controls is a violation of law, even if the failure is fully disclosed and there is no other disclosure problem.
  • The cases join several recent instances in which the SEC has shown a willingness to use the internal controls provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 independently of specific disclosure requirements.

Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.

Last week, in SEC v. Scoville, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that Dodd-Frank allows the Securities and Exchange Commission to bring fraud claims based on sales of securities to foreign buyers where defendants engage in fraudulent conduct within the United States.

In so holding, the Court concluded that Dodd-Frank abrogated in part the Supreme Court’s rule, announced in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., that fraud claims under the federal securities laws can only be brought with respect to transactions in securities listed on a U.S. exchange or transactions in other securities in the U.S.  If adopted more broadly, this ruling would restore in government enforcement actions the more expansive conduct-and-effects test that the Morrison Court rejected.

Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.

Our 5th annual “M&A, Antitrust and the Board Room: Challenges and Conundrums for the West Coast” conference will occur in San Francisco on February 5. For a listing of confirmed topics, participants and speakers, click here.  If you are interested in attending or would like additional information, contact RSVP@cgsh.com.

On December 19, 2018, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion holding that Delaware law does not permit corporations to use charter provisions to require stockholders to litigate certain claims brought under the federal securities laws in a specific forum.  In Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, Vice Chancellor Laster determined that such forum-selection provisions are invalid and unenforceable to the extent that they require any claim under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “1933 Act”) to be filed only in federal court.

The decision built on case law providing that a corporation may include forum-selection clauses in its governing documents where the claims involve intra-corporate disputes stemming from the rights and relationships established under Delaware corporate law (including between corporations and stockholders), but may not do so for claims that are external to the corporate relationship, like those based on tort, contract, labor or environmental law.  The decision may have implications for the use of other forum-selection provisions that mandate arbitration or contain class action waivers.

Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.

As 2019 begins, companies continue to face global uncertainty, marked by volatility in the capital markets and global instability. And while change is inevitable, what has been particularly challenging as we enter this new year is the frenzied pace of change, from societal expectations for how companies should operate, to new regulatory requirements, to the evolving global standards for conducting business.

As companies navigate how to adapt, they are being held to increasingly higher standards in executing a coherent, thoughtful and profitable long-term strategy in this ever-evolving landscape. This memorandum identifies the issues across a number of different areas on which boards of directors, together with management, should be most focused.

We invite you to review these topics by clicking on the links below.

For a PDF of the full memorandum, please click here. Continue Reading Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2019

On December 26, 2018, the SEC announced settled charges against ADT Inc. after finding that ADT, in two earnings releases, gave undue emphasis to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA figures because they identified the relevant GAAP measures only later and much less prominently.

Without admitting or denying the SEC’s factual or legal claims, ADT agreed to an administrative settlement finding violations of Section 13(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 13a-11 thereunder, relating to the requirements of Item 10(e) of Regulation S-K that an issuer present “with equal or greater prominence . . . the most directly comparable financial . . . measures” calculated under GAAP when it includes non-GAAP financial measures in filings and certain other reports to the Commission.

This is just the second enforcement action concerning non-GAAP disclosures that the SEC has brought against an issuer in the two-and-a-half years since the issuance of Staff guidance on non-GAAP disclosure requirements, and it is the first during SEC Chair Jay Clayton’s tenure.  It also is the first action related to non-GAAP disclosures finding a violation of only Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act without an accompanying finding that the disclosure in question constituted a material misstatement or omission.

Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.

ISS recently released updates to its Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on U.S. Compensation Policies and Equity Compensation Plans.[1]  The FAQs are intended to provide general guidance regarding the way in which ISS will analyze certain issues as it prepares proxy analyses and determines vote recommendations for U.S. public companies.

A summary of updates to the FAQs is provided below.  In addition to the ISS and Glass Lewis proxy voting guidelines that were released in the fall of 2018, U.S. public companies should consider the applicability of the ISS FAQs in light of their individual facts and circumstances.[2] Continue Reading ISS Finalizes Updates to its FAQs on Compensation Policies and Equity Compensation Plans