Securities and Exchange Commission Publishes New Proxy Access Rule in Federal Register
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") published Rule 14a-11 today in the Federal Register (.pdf). As discussed in our September 7 post below, this Rule provides for proxy access to certain long-term shareholders, including socially responsible investment funds and pension funds. The rule is effective 60 days after being published in the Federal Register, or November 15, 2010.
Taking into account the uniform 120 day advanced notice deadline, any issuer whose one year anniversary for mailing date is prior to March 15, 2011 will not be subject to a proxy access campaign in 2011. Application of the new access rules to the smallest public companies ("smaller reporting companies" under SEC rules) will be deferred for three years from the effective date.
