The SEC's recent proxy proposals—both the proposal
related to proxy advisory firms (see
this PubCo post) and the proposal related to Rule 14a-8
shareholder proposals (see
this PubCo post)—have been hit hard by the critics. Even
the SEC's own Investor Advisory Committee piled on, ultimately
recommending that the SEC consider a do-over.
(See
this PubCo post.) To the defense comes SEC Commissioner Elad
Roisman, who has been honchoing these proposals at the SEC.
In this speech to the Catholic University Columbus
School of Law, Roisman argues that the proposals were long overdue,
given that some of the rules subject to the proposal dated back to
1954. First to make their views known, he claimed, were some of the
"loudest voices," which accused the SEC of "serving
as a shill for corporate interests, suppressing shareholder votes,
and sheltering CEOs of big corporations from accountability."
But, Roisman maintains, these are myths he hopes to dispel in this
speech,
