TheCorporateCounsel.net

As I blogged last week, we are in the midst of a voting campaign among the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100. We’ve moved up to 4th place, behind two intellectual property blogs and the SCOTUS blog. We really need your support. 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. You don’t have to be an ABA member to vote nor do you even have to be a lawyer. When you pick a password, it must be at least 5 characters long (but it can be any 5 characters – eg. 11111). 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 activate your registration by clicking on the link emailed to you, you should login using the screen name and password that you picked when you registered.

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!

Here is this year’s promotional video that I taped during a conference in Chicago last week. It reflects the lethargic mood of our community during this year’s campaign – if we received the number of votes that we had last year, we would win again handily. Compare to last year’s promotion. If you’re having troubles voting, please shoot me an email and let me know and I can help you. Thanks for the support!

Corp Fin Fills Some Leadership Positions

Last week, Corp Fin announced the following promotions:

– Amy Starr, Chief, Office of Market Trends
– Kathy Hsu, Chief, Office of Structured Finance
– Mike McTiernan, Assistant Director, AD8 Real Estate and Business Services
– Amanda Ravitz, Assistant Director, AD10 Electronics and Machinery
– Suzanne Hayes, Assistant Director, AD12 Financial Services (this is the new 2nd financial services group that is not officially named yet)

We’ve updated our “Corp Fin Organization Chart.” Congrats to all five, it’s been quite a while since an Assistant Director slot was open so I know those spots were widely coveted…

Proxy Access Lawsuit: Two Amicus Curiae Briefs Filed

Last week, two amicus curiae briefs were filed in the lawsuit filed by the Business Roundtable and US Chamber of Commerce against the SEC’s proxy access rule – these briefs from the State of Delaware and the Investment Company Institute were filed in support of the plaintiffs. This is in addition to the initial brief filed by the plaintiffs a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters’ approach to access this season is a letter writing campaign to 100 companies, where the union is seeking access to the company’s nominating committee. In addition, this union is still seeking triennial votes for say-when-on-pay, as noted in this comment letter from Ed Durkin to ISS.

– Broc Romanek