The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:53:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png Action by Written Consent: A New Focus for Shareholder Activism – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Action by Written Consent: A New Focus for Shareholder Activism https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2010/07/05/action-by-written-consent-a-new-focus-for-shareholder-activism/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=action-by-written-consent-a-new-focus-for-shareholder-activism https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2010/07/05/action-by-written-consent-a-new-focus-for-shareholder-activism/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:25:14 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/?p=10666?d=20150120101621EST Posted by Scott Hirst, co-editor, HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, on Monday, July 5, 2010
Editor's Note:

This post comes to us from Ethan Klingsberg, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP focusing on mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs and corporate and SEC matters, and is based on a Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton client memorandum by Mr. Klingsberg, Laurent Alpert, Janet Fisher, Victor Lewkow and Lillian Raben.

Shareholder proposals advocating that corporations provide shareholders with the right to act by written consent in lieu of a meeting reappeared on ballots this proxy season after a hiatus of several years and have won average shareholder support of over 54%. While these proposals are nonbinding and the number of companies with such proposals on the ballot in 2010 is relatively small – a total of 16 companies, according to RiskMetrics – the level of shareholder support is striking and will likely encourage proponents to advance proposals at more companies next year.

(more…)

]]> https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2010/07/05/action-by-written-consent-a-new-focus-for-shareholder-activism/feed/ 1