The global spread of COVID-19 has impacted all aspects of business and raises significant securities law questions for public life sciences companies. In this video, Fenwick partners Rob Freedman and Amanda Rose discuss the...more
Disclosure Guidelines for Public Companies Affected by COVID-19 -
On March 25, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance provided guidance regarding disclosure and other securities...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has released final rules amending the definitions for accelerated filers and large accelerated filers, providing significant relief for smaller reporting companies in the technology...more
In response to developments related to COVID-19, the Securities and Exchange Commission has issued new guidance (available here) to assist public companies, investment companies, shareholders, and other market participants...more
3/17/2020
/ Annual Meeting ,
Bylaws ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
New Guidance ,
Notice Requirements ,
Proxy Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Relief Measures ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholder Meetings ,
Virtual Meetings
Impacts of Coronavirus on Commercial Agreements and Public Company Disclosures -
COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has now spread to at least 70 countries, including the United States. Our thoughts are...more
3/6/2020
/ Breach of Contract ,
Contract Management ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
Paid Leave ,
Performance Standards ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Sick Leave ,
Workplace Safety
Survey Results -
Life Sciences and Technology IPOs Stay Strong in Second Half Despite Bumps -
U.S. initial public offerings notched another robust year in 2019 despite bouts of volatility, a number of high-profile...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued guidance on the use of financial metrics and has proposed significant amendments pertaining to Regulation S-K’s financial disclosure provisions?. In addition, SEC...more
2/19/2020
/ Climate Change ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Financial Reporting ,
Financial Statements ,
MD&A Statements ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Risk Assessment ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Recently, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis released revisions to their respective proxy voting guidelines for 2020. The ISS and Glass Lewis updates applicable to U.S. companies are discussed separately...more
11/21/2019
/ Audit Committee ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Equity Compensation ,
Equity Plans ,
Executive Compensation ,
Glass Lewis ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Pay Ratio ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Say-on-Pay ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Shareholder Rights
Possibly signaling the future direction of regulation of proxy advisers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Aug. 21 issued two sets of interpretive guidance, one regarding proxy advisory firms under the...more
Survey Results -
Life Sciences and Tech IPOs Continue Steady Pace in First Half -
As we had predicted in our prior IPO survey, 2019 has proven to be strong for initial public offerings. Following a somewhat sluggish...more
Survey Results -
Life Sciences and Tech IPOs Continued Hot Streak in Second Half -
The life sciences and technology IPO markets continued their strong performance in the second half of 2018, notwithstanding significant...more
In an effort to promote capital formation and reduce compliance costs, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has amended its rules to expand the number of public companies that qualify for scaled disclosure...more
On June 29, 2017 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it would permit all companies registering for an initial public offering to take advantage of the confidential review process that was previously...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 1, 2017, adopted rules requiring reporting companies to include in their 1933 Act registration statements and 1934 Act periodic and current reports and registration...more