Liz Walsh

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In a somewhat surprising development, on October 7, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement (the “Division”), in consultation with the Division of Corporation Finance, published an investigation report (the “Report”) pursuant to Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), detailing its investigations into certain members…

On October 8, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) published two new Corporation Finance Interpretations, or CFIs, addressing retail voting programs.  Retail voting has been a popular topic for the Division lately, including two recent no-action letters pursuant to which the Division agreed not to recommend enforcement action related…

The Office of Mergers and Acquisitions in Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the “Commission”) Division of Corporation Finance recently published two no-action letters agreeing not to recommend enforcement action related to certain Exchange Act rules as applied to retail investor voting programs.  These letters build on a no-action letter issued in fall 2025 to The Exxon…

On September 16, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed amendments to modernize the proxy solicitation rules (Release Nos. 33-11439; 34-106385; File No. S7-2026-33) under Regulation 14A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), which govern how companies and others solicit proxies to vote at shareholder meetings. Many…

In an awaited but not surprising proposing release, on September 16, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”) proposed rescinding Rule 14a-8 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which governs the processes under which a shareholder may include a proposal in a public company’s proxy materials. The SEC…

On September 16, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) proposed two sets of amendments to the federal proxy rules under Regulation 14A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). The first proposal would rescind Exchange Act Rule 14a-8, the shareholder proposal rule, and amend Exchange Act Rule 14a-4(c)…

In February 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance published two new Corporation Finance Interpretations (“CFIs,” or CDIs, as they were known at the time) relating to when beneficial ownership of a reporting company’s securities must be reported on a Schedule 13D, as opposed to a Schedule 13G (read about it here…

Taking a step that many in the securities regulatory world predicted, on August 14, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) announced it would no longer respond to requests from companies to exclude shareholder proposals from proxy statements pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 14a-8 (including Rule 14a-8(i)(1)), until further…

For decades, U.S. securities regulation treated foreign private issuers (“FPIs”) with ‘home country deference,’ offering accommodations based on the premise that robust local oversight rendered many U.S. requirements duplicative. Over time, however, that premise has begun giving way to ‘domestication’: a move to align FPIs with U.S. reporting norms, at least in part based on…

In many ways, the 2026 proxy season has been markedly different than prior seasons, due, in no small part, to the November 2025 decision by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Staff not to provide substantive guidance on the grounds on which a company could omit a shareholder proposal under most prongs of Rule…