Milbank LLP Environmental partner Matt Ahrens and associates Allison Sloto (Environmental) and Pinky Mehta (Global Risk & National Security) recently co-authored an article titled “An Overview of the SEC’s Proposed Climate-Related Risk Disclosure Rules” in the New York State Bar Association’s The New York Environmental Journal – Volume 42, No. 2.
Continue Reading The SEC’s Proposed Climate-Related Risk Disclosure Rules

Aiding and abetting claims against a buyer for a target’s breach of fiduciary duties are meant to be rare, given the “long-standing rule that arm’s-length bargaining is privileged and does not, absent actual collusion and facilitation of fiduciary wrongdoing, constitute aiding and abetting . . .”[1] (emphasis added). Yet to survive a motion to dismiss, plaintiff must show only that it is “reasonably conceivable” that buyer “knowingly participated” in the breach of fiduciary duties.[2] This may explain why there were at least three cases last year in which aiding and abetting claims against buyer survived a motion to dismiss.[3]
Continue Reading Buyers Beware – Aiding and Abetting Claims Based on Target’s Proxy Disclosure

As a result of the SEC’s most recent Staff Legal Bulletin[1] (“SLB”), shareholder proposals that focus on a “significant social policy” will not be excludable simply because the policy issue is not, in fact, “significant” to the company receiving the proposal. The SEC has decided it will no longer “focus on the nexus between a policy issue and the company.”  Previously, shareholder proposals that did not raise a “policy issue of significance for the company” were excludable under the “ordinary course of business” exception to Rule 14a-8.[2] The new Staff Legal Bulletin is a departure from past SEC practice, and led the SEC to simultaneously rescind three previous Staff Legal Bulletins on the same subject.
Continue Reading SEC Guidance on Shareholder Proposals – Staff Legal Bulletin 14L – Is This the Way to Regulate Climate Change?

On July 28, 2021, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chair Gary Gensler, speaking at a webinar titled “Climate and Global Financial Markets,” set forth certain considerations to guide his staff in developing a rule that will require mandatory disclosure on climate risks by the end of 2021.

Up until now, SEC guidelines on climate disclosure were voluntary, resulting in inconsistent disclosure among public companies. In March 2021, the SEC solicited comments from the public on climate change disclosures and, according to Chair Gensler, more than 550 unique comment letters were submitted, three-quarters of which supported mandatory climate disclosure rules. Chair Gensler believes that “consistent, comparable, decision-useful disclosures” would be beneficial to companies and investors alike.Continue Reading SEC Chair Outlines Rulemaking Considerations for Potential New Climate-Related Disclosure Requirement