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. Thu, 07 May 2026 11:32:12 +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 ISS Supports Delaware Choice of Forum Provisions – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 ISS Supports Delaware Choice of Forum Provisions https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/iss-supports-delaware-choice-of-forum-provisions/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=iss-supports-delaware-choice-of-forum-provisions https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/iss-supports-delaware-choice-of-forum-provisions/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2020 13:10:47 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=134055?d=20201020091047EDT Posted by Theodore N. Mirvis, William Savitt, and Sabastian V. Niles, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Editor's Note:

Theodore N. Mirvis, William Savitt, and Sabastian V. Niles are partners at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. This post is based on a Wachtell memorandum by Mr. Mirvis, Mr. Savitt, Mr. Niles, S. Christopher Szczerban and Anitha Reddy, and is part of the Delaware law series; links to other posts in the series are available here. The post discusses the growing acceptance of exclusive forum bylaws, which were put forward by Wachtell Lipton partner Theodore N. Mirvis and discussed on the Forum by him here, here and here.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has released its proposed 2021 voting policy updates and, for the first time, proposes expressly recognizing the benefits of Delaware choice of forum provisions for Delaware corporations and generally recommending in favor of management-sponsored proposals seeking shareholder approval of such charter or bylaw provisions. Under the new ISS policy, ISS would:

  1. generally vote for charter or bylaw provisions that specify Delaware, or the Delaware Court of Chancery, as the exclusive forum for corporate law matters for Delaware corporations, “in the absence of serious concerns about corporate governance or board responsiveness to shareholders” (and continue to decline to vote against the directors of Delaware companies who adopt such bylaw provisions “unilaterally”);
  2. continue to take a case-by-case approach with respect to votes regarding exclusive forum provisions specifying states other than Delaware; and
  3. generally vote against provisions that specify a state other than the state of incorporation as the exclusive forum for corporate law matters or a specific local court within the state (and apply withhold vote recommendations to a board’s “unilateral” adoption of such a provision).

(more…)

]]> https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/iss-supports-delaware-choice-of-forum-provisions/feed/ 1