Our attorneys have wide-ranging experience over many years in the corporate governance arena. As a result of this expertise, our lawyers have been helping clients cope with the array of legislative and regulatory responses coming out of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and major U.S. stock exchanges.
The Shareholder Bill of Rights Act of 2009
May 28, 2009 Read the memo
On May 19th, Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Maria Cantwell of Washington introduced the Shareholder Bill of Rights Act of 2009 (S. 1074), which, if adopted in its current form, would encompass the most fundamental restructuring of U.S. corporate governance in recent years. The bill would add new provisions to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that would require companies to have independent chairmen of the board, annual elections of all directors (i.e., no classified boards), majority voting in the election of directors, independent risk committees, advisory shareholder votes on executive compensation and golden parachutes and proxy access.