Corporate Governance (ESG)

In our sixth session, the team is joined by Jason Vigna, a Member in our Securities Litigation Practice, to discuss best practices for handling crises in the boardroom — including identifying, documenting, discussing, managing, and disclosing material risks.

In our fifth session, which focuses on employment law, the team is joined by Jen Rubin, a bicoastal Member in our Employment, Labor & Benefits Practice and Chair of our ESG Practice, to discuss best practices related to hiring an executive (hint: consensus is key), managing the executive at the board level, and how to (amicably) negotiate to terminate an executive.

In our fourth session, “ESG in the Boardroom,” the team is joined by Kristyn Noeth, Of Counsel at Mintz, to discuss best practices related to and practical implementation of ESG concepts, as well as the impending Climate Disclosure Rule. As noted in the introduction, fewer topics are generating more interest in boardrooms across the country (and at Mintz!) than environmental, social, and corporate governance.

In our second session, “Running an Effective Board Meeting,” the team discusses key considerations for public and private companies in this critical area of governance.

There is no “one size fits all” approach with respect to board responsibility for ESG oversight, say Mintz attorneys Megan Gates, Jacob Hupart, and Jen Rubin. Some may form a new committee, some may give the duties to an existing committee, or still others might have each board member assume all ESG responsibilities. In any case, they say, investors are raising the stakes on ESG matters.

In this webinar, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, and Members Megan Gates and Jacob Hupart, examine key takeaways from the SEC’s proposed climate-related disclosures rule.

This alert outlines key aspects of the SEC’s new proposed rules on climate disclosures, entitled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.”

Investment funds that target companies with ESG policies have experienced record growth. Yet it’s difficult for companies to know which ESG actions will affect the value of their stock. Member O’Kelly McWilliams looks at how creating an ESG infrastructure will help companies capture value as the investment community and market “catch up” with the corporate world’s widespread embrace of ESG.

In the latest discussion in our ESG webinar series, O’Kelly E. McWilliams III was joined by an informative panel featuring Katherine Grawe, Joe Aguilar, and Mamadou-Abou Sarr. In this webinar, our panelists explored how a variety of issues informed the deployment of ESG policies and shared best practices for putting ESG into action.

Learn from Mintz’s ESG subject matter experts as they explore what ESG really means for and within the legal profession, examine why law firms must embrace ESG as a business-critical priority, and share how law firm leadership can address ESG strategically and holistically.

Mintz Member Jennifer Rubin authored an article published by Corporate Counsel exploring how a new generation of tech savvy, social justice-focused, and environmentally aware employee stakeholders are creating recruitment, retention, and other employment challenges. In the article, she wrote that corporate counsel can play a key role in managing and mitigating this human capital risk, not only in response to the growing environmental, social, and governance disclosure and regulation trends, but as part of the need to design future-proof legal frameworks for the workplace.

In the world of Mergers and Acquisitions (“M&A”), both buyers and sellers are placing greater emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) credentials. 

A recently proposed Department of Labor regulation entitled “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” (the “Proposal”) addresses the duties of retirement plan fiduciaries when considering economically targeted investments – i.e., investments that take into account environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors. Issued in response to a May 20, 2021 Executive Order, the Proposal would significantly modify prior, Trump-era rules on the subject. This post examines the Proposal from the retirement committee perspective.

Join Tom Burton, Chair of the Mintz Energy & Sustainability Practice, Megan Gates, Chair of the Mintz Corporate Practice and Co-chair of the Mintz Securities & Capital Markets Practice, Dan Romito, Partner, Consulting – ESG Strategy & Integration at Pickering Energy Partners, and Sarah Borg-Olivier, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President at Instar Asset Management for a discussion on the practical considerations surrounding ESG. 

In this webinar, Jacob Hupart and co-host, David Leone of GZA GeoEnvironmental, explore the legal and practical challenges associated with climate change and how companies can learn to navigate its impact on their businesses. The presentation focuses on how to prepare for a new regulatory environment under the Biden Administration, practical steps companies can take to improve their resiliency in the future and how to identify and manage risks.

Read the transcript of CompensationStandard.com’s November 2020 webcast titled, “Pay Equity: What Compensation Committees Need to Know” in which Anne L. Bruno was among the experts to discuss pay equity, shareholder expectations, disclosure trends, board oversight, and more.

Read about Nasdaq’s proposed new listing rules, which would generally require U.S. listing companies to appoint a certain number of diverse directors.