On January 25, Womble Bond Dickinson and CamberView Partners joined forces to discuss the latest developments in corporate governance and highlight key issues and best practices for corporate boards and their advisers as they head into the 2018 proxy season.

This most recent edition of Womble Bond Dickinson’s Corporate Governance Summit and Proxy Season Outlook was held at Wake Forest Charlotte Center; a live webcast helped the transatlantic law firm reach a broad audience.

A panel of Womble Bond Dickinson partners Chris Gyves, Jane Jeffries Jones and Sid Shenoy, associate Janet Lowder, and CamberView partner Bob McCormick discussed:

• Shareholder proposals and proxy access;
• Key disclosure topics and trends;
• Tax reform considerations and its impact on executive compensation;
• Board composition, tenure and diversity;
• Recent changes in proxy advisor policies; and
• Insights for boards of directors regarding engagement, activism and M&A.

Jones said, “With the conference’s coverage of current developments in the proxy, governance and compensation areas, we believe that our team provided attendees with useful insights as public companies face a new year of legal challenges.”

Shenoy added that “Bob’s comments, drawing on his experience at CamberView and prior roles at Glass Lewis and Fidelity, provided an invaluable perspective for everyone who joined us at Wake Forest Charlotte Center and on the webcast, and nicely complemented our discussion of key legal, tax and accounting developments. It was a well-rounded discussion of hot button governance and proxy issues.”

“I enjoyed joining experts from Womble Bond Dickinson at their recent 2018 Corporate Governance Summit and Proxy Season Outlook to discuss how corporations can prepare for the 2018 annual meeting amid heightened shareholder expectations particularly around the role of the board,” McCormick said.

“In 2018, corporate boards and management will face growing demands for transparency and responsiveness from shareholders and other constituencies, particularly around board composition, compensation, and environmental and social concerns. A key takeaway—underscored by Bob's remarks at the event—is that companies with identified risk in any of those areas should consider a proactive approach to addressing issues and a strategy for communicating progress,” added Gyves.

About the Speakers

Chris Gyves and Sid Shenoy are partners in Womble Bond Dickinson’s Corporate & Securities Practice Group and Co-Chairs of the firm's Public Company Advisors Team (PCAT), a multi-office team consisting of corporate, capital markets and tax attorneys who service the firm's public company clients. PCAT members advise and assist public companies on market communication and reporting, corporate governance, corporate finance, executive compensation, strategic transactions, tax strategies, securities and other business litigation, and government investigations.

Jane Jeffries Jones, a partner in Womble Bond Dickinson’s Corporate & Securities Practice Group and a member of PCAT, focuses her practice primarily on executive compensation and corporate governance matters.

Janet Lowder is a member of PCAT whose practice focuses on executive compensation and corporate governance.

Bob McCormick is a partner at CamberView and previously served as Chief Policy Officer of Glass Lewis, where he oversaw the analysis, voting recommendations and report writing on management and shareholder proposals on over 20,000 shareholder meetings of public companies in more than 100 countries. Prior to that role, Mr. McCormick was Director of Investment Proxy Research at Fidelity Investments where he managed the proxy voting of 700 mutual funds and accounts holding 5,000 securities worth $1 trillion. Mr. McCormick serves on the board of the Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and on the advisory board of the University of Delaware’s John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

About Womble Bond Dickinson

Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers based in 27 UK and US office locations. The firm provides core legal services including: Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Pensions, Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Finance, Banking, Restructuring, Insolvency, IP, Technology and Data, Private Wealth, Projects, Construction and Infrastructure, Real Estate and Regulatory Law.

About CamberView Partners

CamberView Partners is the leading provider of investor-led advice to public companies on engagement and shareholder relations, activism and contested situations, sustainability and complex corporate governance matters. CamberView helps its clients succeed by providing unique insight into investors’ perspectives on long-term value creation, interpreting the evolving governance landscape and creating proactive strategies to stay ahead of investor challenges.