Practice Area Blogs & Digests

A recent Supreme Court decision resolves an important question regarding what rights a non-debtor licensee has to continue to use a trademark under a rejected lease and may also have broader ramifications on the rights of contract parties when a contract is rejected under Section 365.

Congress recently passed the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019 and the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, intended to make the Chapter 12 and Chapter 11 processes more accessible to family farming operations and small business debtors, respectively.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is an important and powerful tool to address financial challenges that a company and its decision-makers may be facing. While the process has its challenges, understanding the rights afforded and strategic advantages available through the Chapter 11 process is critical.

On August 8, the SEC proposed amendments to modernize the description of business, legal proceedings and risk factor disclosures that registrants are required to make pursuant to Regulation S-K.

The Ernst & Young Center for Board Matters recently published a report on the 2019 proxy season, highlighting five key takeaways and offering related questions for boards to consider.

Another key takeaway from the 2019 proxy season is the emergence of a new, stricter standard for what constitutes director “overboarding.”

“Seventeen years after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), those not involved in SOX compliance might assume that by now it would be a rote activity requiring diminishing effort. They would be wrong.” So begins a recent CFO.com article discussing the results of Protiviti’s 2019 Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Survey.

A recent Forbes article argues that it is becoming increasingly necessary for boards to possess cyber security and technology expertise.

In any given year, the vast majority of companies receive overwhelming shareholder support for their say-on-pay proposals; however, most companies should expect to receive an “against” vote recommendation from a proxy advisory firm at least once.

A recent publication by ISS Analytics examines the characteristics of directors who were newly-appointed at Russell 3000 companies and notes five major trends in new director appointments for 2019.