TheCorporateCounsel.net

We are grateful that our blog has made the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 for the third year in a row. You may recall that our blog won the voting contest among the 100 last year, the first year that the Journal put the Blawg 100 head-to-head in a round of voting.

This year, the voting is much more competitive and we currently stand in 8th place, behind such players as TaxGirl and IP Watchdog (who is way out in front). So we really need your support, particularly since our blog is sort of hidden in the obscure “Niche” category. It’s time for the corporate community to represent! If you value what you read all year long here, please repay us with 30 seconds of your time.

To help you navigate the ABA Journal’s voting framework, here are the steps you need to take:

a. If you voted last year:

1. You likely need to recover your password by simply inputting your email address. You will promptly receive an email with your password and screen name in it.

2. Once you have your password, you should login to their site

3. Once logged in, go to the “Niche” category and scroll down to TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog (it’s second from the bottom) and click on the “Vote” symbol to the left of that. Thanks!

b. If you didn’t vote last year:

1. Register to vote – it’s free (if you’re an ABA member, your ABA id/password won’t work for the ABA Journal’s site unfortunately as they are separate)

2. Once you get your password, you should login emailed to you

3. Once logged in, go to the “Niche” category and scroll down to TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog (it’s second from the bottom) and click on the “Vote” symbol to the left of that. Thanks!

If you’re having troubles, please shoot me an email and let me know and I can help you. Thanks for the support!

Nugget #3: Board Evaluations – Individual Evaluations are More Important in Light of Proxy Access

Recently, I started dribbling out some of the gems that Alan Dye and I shared a number of years ago during a series of “50 Nuggets in 50 Minutes” webcasts. Here is #3:

Board Evaluations – Individual evaluations are more important in light of shareholder access – The need for the nominating committee to evaluate incumbent directors has become clearer as the movement for shareholders to have a greater ability to nominate their own candidates grows [editor’s note: this was written in ’03; now that access is here, it truly apply]. For the nominating committee to evaluate incumbent directors, it needs information – and individual evaluations is one logical way to gather this information.

The latest surveys show that only 25% of public companies conduct individual evaluations. The most popular individual director evaluation method is the use of self-assessment questionnaires. Anyone who handles these evaluations should take care as this process can be quite political!

Poll: Who Should Play “Dave the Animal” in the Feature Movie?

A topic of interest among members is which characters will Dave and I play now that the Dodd-Frank Act has rendered “Billy Broc” Oxley and Dave “The Animal” Sarbanes obsolete (these characters were made infamous during these “The Sarbanes-Oxley Report” videos). So Dave and I seek your input into who we should be pretend to be now in this anonymous poll:

– Broc Romanek