ARTICLE
28 September 2018

Shareholder Engagement: Using Proxy Statements And Corporate Websites

AO
A&O Shearman

Contributor

A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. With nearly 4,000 lawyers globally, we are equally fluent in English law, U.S. law and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets. This combination creates a new kind of law firm, one built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients on their most complex, multijurisdictional matters – everywhere in the world. A firm that advises at the forefront of the forces changing the current of global business and that is unrivalled in its global strength. Our clients benefit from the collective experience of teams who work with many of the world’s most influential companies and institutions, and have a history of precedent-setting innovations. Together our lawyers advise more than a third of NYSE-listed businesses, a fifth of the NASDAQ and a notable proportion of the London Stock Exchange, the Euronext, Euronext Paris and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
With rising pressure on companies and their boards to describe and justify their governance practices coming from institutional investors ...
United States Corporate/Commercial Law

With rising pressure on companies and their boards to describe and justify their governance practices coming from institutional investors, who are increasingly guided by broad corporate stewardship goals, companies have been looking for ways to enhance shareholder engagement. Companies have intensified their engagement practices and are increasingly holding meetings directly with the governance experts within major institutional investors. These “governance roadshows” are focused solely on describing (and seeking support for) governance policies and practices. The use of the company’s proxy statement and its corporate website has continued to emerge as an important tool to supplement these engagement efforts as it provides a direct, efficient and effective way to communicate a company’s overall governance philosophy as well as its approach to specific governance issues.

Company proxy statements and the corporate governance sections of company websites have always been the primary source for a view of a company’s governance structures, policies and practices, but many companies only disclosed information in order to meet SEC and other disclosure requirements. Many leading companies are no longer limiting their proxy statement and website to mandatory disclosures, but are using both as a vehicle for advocacy by making their governance case and laying the foundation for higher-level discussions during the shareholder engagement process.

In this insight, we explore the practices and trends of the Top 100 Companies in this area.

Read this section of the 2018 Corporate Governance Survey.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

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