Shareholder Engagement Strategies for Public Companies: Avoiding Proxy Contests
Preparation, Communication, Timing, Legal Requirements
Recording of a 90-minute premium CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will focus on strategies for direct engagement between a public company and its key institutional shareholders. The panel will discuss preparation, communication, timing, and legal requirements that directors and officers must consider when engaging with shareholders.
Outline
- The increasing importance of shareholder engagement
- Issues driving shareholder voting decisions: ESG and other matters
- Strategies for engaging with shareholders
- Identifying key shareholders and their concerns
- Aligning board with management in devising and communicating corporate vision
- Adequate disclosure of risks faced by the company
- Determining which officers and directors will be authorized to engage directly
- Timing: when to engage
Benefits
The panel will review these and other issues:
- What is the purpose of shareholder engagement, and why is it more important now than in the past?
- How and when should a public company identify and respond to the concerns of its larger shareholders?
- What kinds of company disclosures are appropriate when communicating with shareholders?
- What steps should a company follow to develop and communicate a consistent message to its constituencies?
Faculty
Bonnie Roe
Partner
Cohen & Gresser
Ms. Roe has over 30 years of experience as a corporate lawyer advising publicly and privately held companies and funds.... | Read More
Ms. Roe has over 30 years of experience as a corporate lawyer advising publicly and privately held companies and funds. Her practice focuses on securities law, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Roe represents U.S. and internationally based companies, financial intermediaries, and investors in public and private offerings, including cross-border offerings and SPACs. She also regularly advises public companies and their boards of directors on public disclosure, SEC compliance matters, corporate governance, and executive compensation. Ms. Roe is Chair of the ABA’s Subcommittee on Small Business Issuers and is the author of the chapter on securities law opinions in an annually updated treatise on legal opinions. She frequently speaks and writes on securities law and corporate governance.
Close
Shaun J. Mathew
Partner
Kirkland & Ellis
Mr. Mathew is a leader of the firm’s Shareholder Activism & Hostile Takeover Defense practice. He counsels... | Read More
Mr. Mathew is a leader of the firm’s Shareholder Activism & Hostile Takeover Defense practice. He counsels public companies and their boards of directors on shareholder activism and hostile takeover response and preparedness, investor engagement, and corporate governance matters, including those related to diversity, sustainability, and other ESG related issues. In addition, Mr. Mathew is a member of the firm’s Crisis Response practice group, counseling clients on internal and external communications in high-profile crises. His recent experience includes defending public companies and private equity sponsors in several of the most high-profile challenges to M&A transactions. He has defended clients against campaigns mounted by a number of activist investors.
Close