The position of Corporate Secretary has evolved over the years. For some organizations, gone are the days when the Corporate Secretary was a mere corporate record custodian, certifier of corporate organizational facts and note-taker. Bylaws, board mandates, shareholder agreements and other governance documents, not to mention job descriptions, may or may not fully describe the expectations that now often go with the role. This article examines the role of the Corporate Secretary ...
As the general counsel of a public company, you are busy working one day and the CEO walks into your office and says, “I’ve been thinking that I would like to make a proposal to take this company private. I need your advice on how to get started.” The following points should be considered to help make the process easier ...
By Daniel Gold and Tracy G. Smith1 In an opinion issued June 13, 2011, Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 564 U.S. __ (2011), the Supreme Court declined to adopt a broad interpretation of who can be considered to have “made” a statement under the federal securities laws ...
A bipartisan U.S. Senate committee has asked both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to study the proliferation of physician owned distributorships (PODs), citing a lack of regulatory guidance on how these arrangements square with existing federal law ...
In a unanimous opinion issued yesterday in Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co., 563 U.S. __ (2011), a securities class fraud action, the Supreme Court held that class certification had been improperly denied by the Fifth Circuit based on the absence of “loss causation.” The Court’s holding rejected Fifth Circuit case law dating back to 2007, which had required securities fraud plaintiffs to prove loss causation in order to obtain certification of a class ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted on May 25, 2011, final rules to implement the Section 21F of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 entitled “Securities Whistleblower Incentives and Protection.” The new rules have significant implications for public companies and securities industry businesses ...
As of 1 January 2012, shareholders of listed companies will obtain more rights as aconsequence of the transposition of the EU Shareholders’ Rights Directive intoBelgian federal law. However, unlike the Directive, the new Belgian Act alsoallows non-listed companies, mainly on an optional basis, to apply theShareholders’ Rights Act. On 20 December 2010, the Shareholders’ Rights Act was ratified ...
On May 25, 2011, the en banc Federal Circuit announced its decision in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Company regarding the appropriate standards for succeeding with an inequitable conduct defense ...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services today proposed an expansion of the rights of individuals to obtain reports from health providers and insurers about how their protected health information (PHI) is used.1 The draft regulations will require health providers and insurers (called “Covered Entities”) to provide more data faster and in a variety of formats as requested by individuals ...
Law No. 8 of 2010 regarding the Prevention and Eradication of the Criminal Act of Money Laundering (the “AML Law”) came into effect on 22 October 2010. This new version of the AML Law imposes jail terms of up to 20 years and fines of up to 100 billion Rupiah ($US11.5 million) for the criminal act of money laundering ...
Companies wishing to import goods for their businesses are required to have an Importer Identification Number (Angka Pengenal Importir – “API”). Under Trade Minister Regulation No.45/M-DAG/9/PER/2009, as amended by Regulation No.17/M-DAG/PER/3/2010 (“Regulation No ...
The Supreme Court in CIGNA Corp. v. Amara held that plan terms cannot be reformed under Section 502(a)(1)(B) of ERISA based on a misleading summary plan description (SPD). Despite this narrow ruling, six justices further stated that reformation may be an appropriate equitable remedy under Section 502(a)(3) of ERISA. Background In 1998, CIGNA replaced its defined benefit plan with a cash balance plan ...
The Supreme Court recently held that a federal agency’s response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request could bar a later False Claims Act case based on the information disclosed. In Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel. Kirk, 563 U.S. __ (2011),1 the Court held that a response to a FOIA request is a “public disclosure” in an “administrative report” under the False Claims Act ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached its first-ever deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with Tenaris, S.A., a global supplier of steel pipe products to the oil and gas industry. Tenaris disclosed to the Commission that its employees had engaged in conduct that potentially violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Following an investigation, in which Tenaris fully cooperated, the SEC agreed to defer prosecution in exchange for Tenaris’s continued cooperation, $5 ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the creation of so-called “Pioneer ACOs” on May 17 in an attempt to blunt heavy criticism over the draft regulations on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) issued on March 31, 2011 (the “Draft Regulations”).1 The Draft Regulations have been criticized due to their burdensome data collection requirements, large start-up costs, uncertain savings, possible losses and troublesome governance mandates ...
IN A NUTS HELL…* Risk management is a key element in the management of an enterprise, which its management team is responsible for.* Risk management must be a part of a board’s charter in keeping with best governance practices. * Adhering to a director’s duty of care involves participating, to a certain extent, in risk management ...
IN A NUTS HELL… Risk management is a key element in the management of an enterprise, which its management team is responsible for. Risk management must be a part of a board’s charter in keeping with best governance practices. Adhering to a director’s duty of care involves participating, to a certain extent, in risk management ...
The United States and Texas Supreme Courts have declined to review the appeals of two Texas appraisal districts’ power to tax oil and natural gas in transit. In both cases, Texas courts of appeals held that oil and natural gas moving in the stream of interstate commerce are not subject to ad valorem taxation in Texas. These decisions solidify the law in Texas that property moving in transit is not taxable ...
Last week, a Decree was published in the Official Journal of the Federation that amended, supplemented, and repealed various provisions of the Federal Competition Law (Ley Federal de Competencia Económica), the Federal Penal Code (Código Penal Federal) and the Federal Tax Code (Código Fiscal de la Federación) (collectively, the “Decree”) in the area of antitrust regulation. The most significant aspects of the reforms are the following: 1 ...
Southwest Health Alliance (“Southwest”), an independent practice association with approximately 900 member-physicians, has agreed to a proposed order recently entered by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) settling charges that it engaged in anticompetitive conduct in its dealings with insurers and other payors for the provision of physician services (collectively, “insurers” or “payors”) ...
Recently, the Premerger Notification Office (“PNO”) issued a statement to clarify the use of escrows in connection with transactions subject to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (“HSR Act”). The statement supersedes all previous informal interpretations and advice from the PNO. In sum, the current PNO view is that escrows generally do not shield a buyer from obtaining beneficial ownership of the escrowed assets or voting securities ...
A former GlaxoSmithKline attorney, Lauren Stevens, was acquitted on May 10 of all criminal charges stemming from her response to an FDA investigation. The acquittal, ordered by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, is a stunning defeat for the government’s anti-fraud enforcement measures. The judge also severely rebuked the government’s efforts in the matter, stating the case should never have been prosecuted. Had she been convicted, Stevens would have faced a prison term of up to 60 years ...
A Florida court has rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission’s single-factor transaction-based compensation test for broker activity, perhaps signaling a more favorable view toward “finders” in the future. The court held that an array of non-exclusive factors should be evaluated to determine whether a finder engaged in broker activity ...
The UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) is currently consulting on a fundamental review of the UK competition regime. This includes, amongst other proposals, the introduction of a mandatory merger regime and a combination of the hitherto distinct first and second phase authorities (the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission) to form a single 'Competition and Markets Authority' (CMA) ...
