In an article published by Jim Hamilton’s World of Securities Regulation, Marty Dunn discussed the Division of Corporate Finance’s new procedures for no-action requests for the 2020 proxy season.
Marty said that a September announcement of the new approach just reiterated the same three options that have always existed, noting that if the staff decides not to state a view, it simply means that it is not getting involved and the parties are free to litigate the matter. He said that he hopes that declining to state a view does not become the norm this proxy season.
Marty also said that he thinks oral advice makes sense from a time-management perspective, citing instances in which proponents submit a lot of letters on an issue, many of which do not advance the matter. “It can take up a lot of the staff’s time to maintain those files,” he noted, adding that oral advice would eliminate this.