What are ISS and Glass Lewis and Why Should My Bank Care?
On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ended more than five years of uncertainty and confusion by ruling that proxy voting advice issued by proxy advisors is not a “solicitation” under...more
The 2025 proxy season (July 1, 2024 – June 20, 2025, meetings) concluded with a significant drop in the volume of shareholder proposals from the 2024 proxy season’s record high, as environmental and social (E&S) proposals...more
On June 20, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2337 (“SB 2337”), a novel regulation that will require significant disclosure obligations for proxy advisors, such as ISS and Glass Lewis, for their voting...more
On June 20, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2337 ("SB 2337") to impose first-of-its-kind regulation and significant disclosure obligations on proxy advisors, such as ISS and Glass Lewis. SB 2337 aims to...more
As we reported in our Preparing for the 2025 Proxy Season client alert, Glass Lewis announced on February 18, 2025, that it was reviewing its diversity-related voting guidelines “in the face of the U.S. Administration’s...more
On February 11, 2025, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced a change to its voting policy with respect to board diversity. ISS will no longer consider the gender and racial and/or ethnic diversity of U.S. company...more
Citing recent DEI developments in the U.S., ISS released its Statement on Diversity Factors in Director Elections on February 11, 2025 announcing that it will “indefinitely halt consideration of certain diversity factors in...more
On February 11, 2025, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced that it is suspending the consideration of diversity factors when making voting recommendations for directors at U.S. public companies. ISS’s press...more
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) recently released its updates to its Proxy Voting Guidelines. These updates will take effect for all annual meetings held after February 1, 2025....more
As companies begin preparing for the 2025 proxy season, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the leading providers of corporate governance solutions and proxy advisory services, recently issued...more
In preparation for the upcoming 2025 proxy season, issuers should familiarize themselves with the updated Canadian proxy voting guidelines recently published by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) and Glass, Lewis &...more
On November 14, 2024, Glass Lewis published its 2025 U.S. Benchmark Policy Guidelines (U.S. Guidelines), and its 2025 Shareholder Proposals & ESG-Related Benchmark Policy Guidelines (ESG Guidelines), both effective for...more
This guide discusses important themes from the 2024 proxy season and developing trends we are monitoring for 2025. It also includes a “housekeeping checklist” designed to assist you as you prepare your proxy statement. For...more
Despite a strong start to the year, activist activity in Canada in 2024 tapered to pre-pandemic levels. This reversion to more historic annual totals follows a notable resurgence of shareholder demands directed at Canadian...more
SEC charges four companies with misleading cyber disclosures - Resulting from an investigation involving public companies potentially impacted by the compromise of SolarWinds’ Orion software and other related activity, the...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recently released its “U.S. Shareholder Proposals: A Decade in Motion,” in which it examines trends in shareholder proposals submitted at U.S. companies from July 2014 to June 2024, as...more
ISS ESG, the sustainable investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), recently released methodology updates to its Governance QualityScore. These updates are part of a comprehensive expansion of Governance...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the leading proxy voting advisory firms in the United States, have announced updates and clarifications for their voting guidelines for the U.S. market for the 2024...more
On December 19, 2023, ISS Governance announced updates to its 2024 benchmark proxy voting policies. The full text of the updated benchmark policies for 2024 should be available later this month and will generally apply to...more
On November 16, 2023, Glass Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) released its 2024 U.S. Benchmark Policy Guidelines (U.S. Guidelines), effective for shareholder meetings on or after January 1, 2024. The U.S. Guidelines include several...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recently announced plans to change its methodology for its Environmental & Social Disclosure QualityScore (ISS QualityScore). The revised ISS QualityScore is expected to take effect...more
As we enter the 2023 proxy season, there are a number of new regulatory requirements, both technical and substantive, that have been implemented, and many more on the horizon. For example, many companies will need to comply...more
In preparation for the 2023 proxy season, proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced updates to their voting guidelines for investors, effective on January 1, 2023, and February 1,...more
Companies should be thoughtful and strategic about how they structure their voluntary and mandatory climate disclosures. There are many climate disclosure standards – as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG)...more
In this alert, we provide a round-up of the latest developments in ESG for UK corporates. In this month’s ESG Market Alert, we cover: On 13 December 2022, EU member states reached a deal on the world’s first major carbon...more