To Our Public Company Clients: The SEC has adopted new rules that generally require domestic public companies to publicly disclose information regarding the potential share “overhang” that exists as a result of all of their equity compensation plans. The new rules affect Regulation S-K and S-B Items 201 and 601, Items 10 and 14 of Schedules 14A and 14C, as well as Item 12 of Form 10-K and Item 11 of Form 10-KSB ...
In the Fall of 2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the “Federal Circuit”) issued a decision known to patent attorneys as “Festo.” Critics argued that Festo retroactively and severely restricted a patent holder’s rights, while proponents argued that the decision created more certainty when trying to decide whether a patent was infringed, thus significantly reducing the cost of patent litigation ...
To Our Public Company Clients: On June 6, 2002, the Corporate Accountability and Listing Standards Committee (the “Committee”) of the New York Stock Exchange released a report (the “Report”) recommending reform of its listing standards. In the Report, the Committee expressed concern over recent failures by companies to exercise diligence, ethics and controls and welcomed the opportunity to raise corporate governance and disclosure standards ...
Mergers and Acquisitions 2002: Effective Dealmaking in the Post-Boom Economy A Powerpoint presentation covering the following: Current M&A from a Seller's Perspective Current M&A from a Buyer's Perspective For Both Buyer and Seller, Increased Challenges for M&A Transactions MAC Conditions Invoked as a Reason for Termination of the Deal – The Impact of Tyson and Enron What is a MAC? A material adverse change in what? What does “material” mean? Where’s the beef?
Mergers and Acquisitions 2002: Effective Dealmaking in the Post-Boom Economy A Powerpoint presentation covering the following: The Changing Landscape of M&A Current M&A Environment – Positive Factors Current M&A Environment – Negative Factors Recent Changes in the M&A Environment
To Our Public Company Clients: The SEC has issued for comment a proposed rule which would require a company’s principal executive officer and principal financial officer to certify that, to their knowledge, the information contained in the company’s quarterly and annual reports is true in all important respects and that the reports contain all information about the company of which they are aware that they believe is important to a reasonable investor ...
Department of State: * DOS indicated it plans to end the visa and passport exemptions for Commonwealth Citizens residing in Canada. Currently, citizens of British Commonwealth countries are not required to obtain nonimmigrant visas to enter the United States and do not need passports if they enter the U.S. from a Western Hemisphere country. New regulations would end the current visa and passport exemptions for these individuals ...
Published in For The Defense magazine, July 2002 On May 28, 2000, the United States Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, that the patent world had been anxiously awaiting. In short, the doctrine of equivalents is alive. The Supreme Court vacated the Federal Circuit’s judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion ...
To Our Public Company Clients: The Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of public companies with revenues in excess of $1.2 billion during the last fiscal year to certify personally under oath in writing that their company’s SEC filings are materially correct (the “Order”). See http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/4-460.htm ...
To Our Public Company Clients: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) was signed into law by President Bush on July 30 in an attempt to help eliminate accounting fraud and restore confidence in the nation’s financial markets. The Act makes some of the most significant changes in decades in laws affecting directors, officers, and corporate reporting obligations ...
Department of State: * Nationals of the twenty-six countries subject to additional DOS consular scrutiny are experiencing lengthy delays in the processing of nonimmigrant visa applications. For example, the U.S. Consulate in Paris is unable to specify how long its additional administrative processing will take for these cases, and the previously indicated time frame of 30 days is no longer applicable ...
To Our Public Company Clients: As discussed in our Alert dated July 31, 2002, Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) requires, effective immediately, that CEOs and CFOs of all public companies certify the accuracy of their company’s periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K ...
To Our Public Company Clients and Friends: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) makes some of the most significant changes in decades in laws affecting directors, officers, and corporate reporting obligations. A few of the Act’s provisions are immediately effective, or become effective very soon. The Act leaves many of the critical details and the implementation of the Act to the rule-making authority of the SEC over the next several months ...
As you are aware, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) was signed into law by President Bush on July 30, 2002, in an attempt to help eliminate accounting fraud and restore confidence in the nation’s financial markets. This Alert focuses specifically on important law changes under the Act affecting the insider reporting requirements under Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. New Insider Trading Regulations Accelerated Reporting of Transactions by Insiders ...
To our foreign clients: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”), signed into law on July 30, is an attempt to help eliminate accounting fraud and restore confidence in the nation’s financial markets. The Act makes significant changes in laws affecting directors, officers, and corporate reporting obligations. The Act applies to any issuer, including any non-U.S ...
Every company with operations or sales overseas should carefully consider whether it has effective policies and procedures in place that adequately manage the company’s risks under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Enron Corp. is the target of a new U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation involving allegations of FCPA violations ...
The recent Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia and other corporate crises have led to widespread concern over the adequacy of corporate governance practices of many companies. The focus of much of this scrutiny has centered on the business practices, financial disclosure, audit committee and board independence requirements of public companies ...
To Our Public Company Clients: As discussed in our Alert dated July 31, 2002, Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) directed the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) to adopt, by August 29, 2002, rules requiring that CEOs and CFOs of all public companies certify the accuracy of their company’s periodic reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q (the “Section 302 Certification”) ...
Department of State: * DOS has released the instructions for the 2004 diversity immigrant visa program. The congressionally mandated program is a lottery for 50,000 permanent residence visas. Applicants must meet strict eligibility criteria. Instructions have been issued by the DOS at www.travel.state.gov/DV2004.html * Jordanians are now eligible for E treaty trader/treaty investor visas upon the basis of reciprocity secured by the United States-Jordan Free Trade Area Implementation Act ...
As we discussed in our Alerts dated July 31 and August 9, 2002, Section 402 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) makes it unlawful for public companies to directly or indirectly extend or maintain credit, or arrange for the extension of credit to their executive officers or directors ...
On August 27, 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) unanimously adopted the first rules implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”). This Alert addresses the amendments to the rules regarding the acceleration of insider reporting requirements under Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Section 16 Amendments: Accelerated Insider Reporting Obligations In Release No ...
Corporate Responsibility: The Board of Directors’ Duty of Oversight: Part II – Practical Applications and Limiting Director Liability The information set forth below constitutes Part II of a two-part Alert regarding the board of directors’ duty of oversight. Part I of this Alert defined the duty of oversight and distinguished it from the board’s responsibilities in the decision making context. Part I is available on our website at [insert hyperlink to Part I] ...
To Our Public Company Clients and Friends: The SEC has adopted final rules effective August 29, 2002, under Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”) requiring principal executive officers and principal financial officers of all public companies to certify the accuracy of their annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These representations are new and are not part of the certification required under Section 906 of the Act ...
To Our Public Company Clients and Friends: The SEC has adopted final rules that shorten the filing deadlines for many public companies’ quarterly and annual reports. The new rules implement changes proposed by the SEC in April 2002 as part of the SEC’s initiative to restore investor confidence in public companies by improving public company disclosure ...
To Our NYSE-Listed Clients: The New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) proposed changes to its listing standards aimed at helping to restore investor confidence by adopting new corporate governance rules ...
