The European Parliament has now approved the “Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive,” which will apply to both EU companies and to non-EU companies doing business in the European Union. (There is a phased...more
Recently, a Texas federal court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss in a lawsuit featuring allegations that an employer's 401(k) plan, which allegedly relied on ESG principles when making investments, violated ERISA. ...more
3/22/2024
/ 401k ,
Asset Management ,
Breach of Contract ,
Breach of Duty ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Texas
Recently, a pair of bills were proposed in the New Hampshire state legislature that would make it a felony to knowingly invest state or taxpayer funds based upon ESG criteria in violation of fiduciary duty. Specifically, the...more
Over the past few years, activist investors have submitted a number of shareholder proposals to major fossil fuel companies concerning issues relating to climate change. Recently, two such investors submitted a proposal...more
It has been reported--based upon an analysis by Morningstar--that “[i]nvestors pulled $5 billion from U.S. sustainable funds in the fourth quarter [of 2023] for a total of $13 billion last year [2023].” According to the same...more
Recently, a pair of bills were proposed in the New Hampshire state legislature that would make it a felony to knowingly invest state or taxpayer funds based upon ESG criteria in violation of fiduciary duty. Specifically, the...more
On January 5, 2024, Judge Bough (W.D. Mo.) denied the motion to dismiss filed by the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri Securities Commissioner in the SIFMA v. Ashcroft litigation. This case concerns a legal...more
Federal Regulatory Developments -
In a recent filing with the Office of Management and Budget, the Securities & Exchange Commission disclosed that the vote by the SEC Commissioners as to whether to issue the SEC’s...more
1/3/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Disclosure ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
OMB ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sustainability
Last year, the State of Oklahoma enacted a law that “requires the state to stop doing business with financial companies that ‘boycott’ the oil-and-gas industry.” However, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, “officials...more
A number of significant regulatory, legal, market, and ESG-related developments and issues will affect how public companies approach the upcoming year-end reporting process. As in past years, Mintz has prepared an in-depth...more
12/18/2023
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Clawbacks ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Form 10-K ,
Form 8-K ,
Nasdaq ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Meetings ,
Trading Plans ,
Year-End Planning
According to a recent ESG report from the Conference Board, the number of major companies issuing climate change risk factor disclosures has increased significantly over the past two years. Specifically, of the companies in...more
Federal Regulatory Developments -
On September 20, 2023, the SEC approved amendments to the “Names Rule,” which had initially been proposed in May 2022. This rule requires investment funds to “adopt a policy to invest at...more
11/3/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Climate Change ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Investment Funds ,
Sustainability
The Mintz Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Working Group developed this ESG primer to provide an overview of the current state of affairs in the United States with respect to the ESG issues that businesses...more
10/30/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Antiboycott Requirements ,
Boycotts ,
CFTC ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Enforcement ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Greenwashing ,
Net Zero ,
New Regulations ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
State and Local Government ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina
On September 25, 2023, the SEC announced a settled administrative proceeding against a major investment advisor in which it agreed to pay a $19 million civil penalty for, effectively, greenwashing activities--i.e., pretending...more
On September 21, 2023, Judge Kacsmaryk (N.D. Texas), a famously conservative Trump-appointed jurist, upheld a Department of Labor rule promulgated by the Biden Administration that enables employee retirement plans to consider...more
9/28/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Biden Administration ,
Chevron Deference ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fiduciary ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
Retirement Plan ,
Rulemaking Process
On September 20, 2023, the SEC approved amendments to the "Names Rule," which were initially proposed in May 2022. Although the stated "purpose of the Names Rule," according to the accompanying Fact Sheet distributed by the...more
Public media reports have stated that the SEC’s Enforcement Division has been “sen[ding] document requests, including subpoenas” to asset managers in connection with ESG marketing. Apparently, these actions by the SEC’s...more
This week, an investor brought a lawsuit against Target Corporation in connection with allegedly "false and misleading statements concerning Target's Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and...more
It has been publicly reported that the SEC's Enforcement Division has been "sen[ding] document requests, including subpoenas" to asset managers in connection with ESG marketing. This development is entirely unsurprising, as...more
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled "Protecting Investor Interests: Examining Environmental and Social Policy in Financial Regulation." As indicated by the title of the hearing, the...more
This week, Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-OH), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Dan Bishop (R-NC), sent a letter on behalf of the House Committee on the Judiciary to three major asset managers and two non-profit organizations (the...more
Much ink has been spilled about ESG laws and regulations targeted at the investment of public funds, and rightfully so. Yet, there has been little discussion of novel requirements imposed on banks that simply hold state or...more
SEC Commissioner Uyeda, one of two Republican commissioners on the Securities & Exchange Commission, delivered remarks yesterday at the Society for Corporate Governance's National Conference, in which he broached the idea...more
Much of the current debate about ESG initiatives and how companies consider the impact of climate change on their operations appears to operate in a vacuum, untethered to the real world, where pundits and politicians opine on...more
Recently, SEC Commissioner Peirce--one of the Republican appointees to the Securities & Exchange Commission--delivered a speech to Eurofi (a European think tank focused on financial regulation) in which she extensively...more