Month: April 2019
California’s board gender diversity mandate: will it matter?
As discussed in this article in Bloomberg Businessweek, a new analysis conducted by Bloomberg explores the potential impact of California’s new board gender diversity mandate, SB 826. And what does it show? The impact on the composition of boards could be substantial—perhaps even a “sea change.”
Help is here for audit committees—CAQ offers updated auditor assessment tool
To fulfill their oversight responsibilities, audit committees typically evaluate the outside auditor at least annually to determine, in part, whether the auditor should be engaged for the subsequent fiscal year. The Center for Audit Quality has just published a new updated External Auditor Assessment Tool, which is “designed to assist audit committees in carrying out their responsibilities of appointing, overseeing, and determining compensation for the external auditor.” Beyond oversight, the CAQ observes that a “[r]obust, two-way dialogue that includes providing constructive feedback to the external auditor may improve audit quality and enhance the relationship between the audit committee and the external auditor.” Like many other helpful CAQ tools, this tool provides a number of sample questions to help audit committees satisfy their oversight obligations with regard to the outside auditor. (The discussion below includes only a sampling of the CAQ’s questions provided in the Assessment Tool.) The CAQ also provides a sample form that can be used to solicit input about the outside auditor from company personnel who have had substantial contact with the auditor.
Corp Fin provides guidance on new confidential treatment process, which is effective today
The SEC’s new rules related to confidential treatment (part of FAST Act Modernization and Simplification of Regulation S-K) became effective today, April 2, when the adopting release was published in the Federal Register. With that in mind, Corp Fin has posted some guidance under the very descriptive title, New Rules and Procedures for Exhibits Containing Immaterial, Competitively Harmful Information, to help companies comply with the new confidential treatment process, discussed below. The remainder of the release (other than provisions related to data-tagging, which will be phased in) will become effective on May 2. (For a summary of the new rules, see this PubCo post, which, since the initial posting, has been revised and updated.)
SCOTUS finds primary securities fraud liability for disseminating statements made by others with intent to defraud
Last week, SCOTUS decided Lorenzo v. SEC, a case involving a claim that an investment banker was liable for securities fraud when, at the direction of his boss, he cut, pasted and disseminated to potential investors information that his boss had provided, even though the banker knew the information was false. In a 2011 case, Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, SCOTUS had held that, an “investment adviser who had merely ‘participat[ed] in the drafting of a false statement’ ‘made’ by another could not be held liable in a private action under subsection (b) of Rule10b–5.” (Rule 10b–5(b) prohibits the “mak[ing]” of “any untrue statement of a material fact.”) In Lorenzo, the question before the Court was whether a person who did not “make” statements (that is, who did not have “ultimate authority” over the statements), but who knowingly disseminated false statements to potential investors with intent to defraud, could be found to have violated subsections (a) and (c) of Rule 10b–5. The answer, in an opinion written by Justice Breyer, was yes. Will this case embolden plaintiff’s counsel to push the envelope and assert claims against people who are only peripherally involved in the dissemination of allegedly false information? Time will tell what the ultimate impact of this case may be.
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