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Harris Fischman Publishes Article on SEC Greenwashing Requirements in Corporate Counsel
November 1, 2022
Litigation partner Harris Fischman wrote an article on potential implications for future SEC enforcement activity under the agency’s proposed greenwashing disclosure requirements, published in Corporate Counsel on November 1. In the article, “SEC Proposed Greenwashing Disclosure Requirements: The Devil Is in the Details,” Harris outlines the SEC’s proposed new rules around greenwashing—false or misleading claims made by companies about the quality or extent of their ESG efforts—and the various ways in which the rules may result in new enforcement actions.
“At bottom, the proposed rules play an important and useful role in beginning to define with particularity the sorts of ESG-related information that investors may deem to be material,” Harris writes in conclusion. “That said, in some respects the rules may create difficult disclosure calls for certain funds either because of confusing guidance in the rules (e.g., as to what does and does not qualify as an ESG-related factor) or because they will require disclosure of highly detailed and complex metrics that many funds previously have not disclosed (e.g., greenhouse emissions).”
Litigation associates Melina Meneguin Layerenza, Alexander Beer and Agnes Lee assisted in the preparation of this article.