Recently, BlackRock released its “2024 Investment Stewardship Annual Report” – here’s a 25-page executive summary. Here are six lessons learned – although note this is all about last year; not the latest proxy season...more
On January 10th, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the court) ruled that American Airlines, Inc. (American) and the American Airlines Employee Benefits Committee (together, the Defendants)...more
Whether, and the extent to which, a plan fiduciary can consider nonpecuniary environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) objectives in selecting plan investments has been a hot-button issue for many years, with the view on...more
Following a bench trial, Judge O'Connor (N.D. Tex.) held that “that Defendants breached their fiduciary duty by failing to loyally act solely in the retirement plan's best financial interests by allowing their corporate...more
In this week’s U.S.-focused edition, we look at the world’s largest asset manager’s updated voting guidelines which seek to strike a balance amidst the fraught political rhetoric surrounding sustainable investment. The...more
This is the final post in our 2024 Year in Preview series examining important trends in white collar law and investigations in the coming year... Politicians in Republican-led states have painted a target on environmental,...more
Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti filed a lawsuit against BlackRock, Inc. that accuses the world’s largest asset manager of violating state consumer protection laws by making false and misleading representations to consumers...more
Consumers’ Research, a nonprofit organization claiming to challenge “companies that have chosen to put woke politics above consumer interests,” announced in June 2023 that it was launching a publicity campaign against a...more
Two lawsuits questioning the prudence of plans holding the BlackRock Lifepath target-date funds were thrown out. The two suits, one involving Capital One Financial Corp., and the other involving Booz Allen Hamilton were...more
In the wake of Engine No.1’s successful effort to elect more climate-friendly directors at Exxon and the increasingly aggressive action by BlackRock to take climate into account in its investment management decisions, the...more
BlackRock Doubles Down on Sustainability - • BlackRock signals substantially more assertive posture on climate-related issues • New approach to shareholder proposals saw BlackRock support 54% of environmental and social...more
Climate risk is investment risk. So says BlackRock. And when you manage $8.7 trillion, people tend to listen to what you say. I’ve been noting for some time that BlackRock’s statements seemed to presage increasing...more
Whoever emerges as the victor in the competition for TikTok will have to contend with another complication—this time from China, where on Friday the country “updated its export control rules to cover a variety of technologies...more
As it kicked off its 50th annual gathering today, the World Economic Forum in Davos is facing some hard questions—both about the state of the ideals it has long espoused (“open borders, liberal democracy and free borders,” to...more
Google is facing a federal lawsuit in San Francisco over last week’s AP investigation that showed that the search giant “was sill tracking iPhone and Android device users, even if they turned off the ‘Location History’...more
More trouble for Wells Fargo, as news emerged yesterday that some employees in the company’s business banking wholesale unit “altered information on documents related to corporate customers” without customers’...more