Corporate & Securities Law

A Coming Wave of New-Age Repricings?

By broc

A Coming Wave of New-Age Repricings?

I know that a lot of companies are rethinking their executive compensation arrangements right now. We just sent the Nov-Dec ‘08 issue of The Corporate Executive to the printer. This issue contains the definitive guidance on repricings (and related compensation restructuring issues) and how to implement hold-through-retirement provisions that will help comply with Treasury’s “excessive risk” limitations.

Act Now: To receive a non-blurred version of this issue right away (and on a complimentary basis), enter a No-Risk Trial for ‘09 today.

Note that last week, the Council of Institutional Investors issued a statement warning companies not to reset the bar for CEO pay because of the market meltdown. We have posted this statement - and other memos regarding underwater options - in CompensationStandards.com's "Stock Options" Practice Area. In addition, we have posted other memos about executive compensation restructuring in our "Rolling Back Compensation" Practice Area.

Believe It or Not: Sarbanes-Oxley Lawsuit Marches On

With the markets collapsing and a new appetite for regulatory reform, it was surprising to see this article that reports that the Free Enterprise Fund was dealt another setback in its attempt to find the Sarbanes-Oxley Act unconstitutional. By a 5-4 decision, the US Court of Appeals for Washington DC voted not to review the case recently. Apparently, the plaintiffs now plan to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Even more surprising is the occasional mention in the process of Paulson's '07 "blueprint" to modernize the financial markets as a possible stepping stone for regulatory change. As you may recall, that was a blueprint to deregulate, not re-regulate. We'll be posting reform proposals in our "Regulatory Reform" Practice Area.

SEC's "IDEA" Not a Great Idea? Accusations of Trademark Infringement

As noted by Dominic Jones in his "IR Web Report" a while back, the SEC's plan to launch a new online database (dubbed "IDEA") may have hit a wall when a Canadian tech company - CaseWare International - claimed it already had been using the name for 20 years. The SEC filed a trademark application back in May with the US Patent and Trademark Office, while CaseWare claims it registered its trademark with the US PTO back in 2001. It will be interesting to see how this plays out...

- Broc Romanek

Full post as published by The Corporate Counsel.net Blog on December 03, 2008 (boomark / email).