On December 1, 2020, the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) proposed to adopt listing rules related to board diversity after determining that the national market and the public interest would benefit from a regulatory framework designed to promote “meaningful and multi-dimensional diversification of their boards.” This news comes following the influx of recent state laws ...›
Over the last decade, impact investing has become a significant focus of many nonprofits, just as it has captured the attention of investors who care about social benefit or environmental results as much as financial results. The IRS recently issued a ruling that is a warning to public charities engaged in developing impact-investing opportunities and ...›
The year 2020 was already predicted to be a year of heightened focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics for public companies—and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread protests galvanized by the Black Lives Matter movement increased the call for corporate discussion and action on topics ranging from operational resilience and risk ...›
Considering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when making an investment is no longer solely the province of “impact-first” investors—those who prioritize social or environmental impact above return on capital—but has become, to one degree or another, the norm among private equity (PE) funds. As the calls from both investors and consumers for companies to ...›
In August 2019, a group of nearly 200 chief executives issued a statement, arguing that the role of corporations should be redefined from solely maximizing shareholder value to also “invest[ing] in their employees, protect[ing] the environment and deal[ing] fairly and ethically with their suppliers.” Making that shift is hard when boards of directors are subject to ...›
In this episode of Impactful Conversations, Michael Santos, a social-enterprise- and impact-investing associate in Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office, interviews Rodney Foxworth, the CEO of Common Future. Based in Oakland, California, Common Future tackles wealth inequality nation-wide by focusing on the needs of communities that have been the most negatively impacted by injustice, extraction, and exploitation. ...›
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to make capital markets, including venture capital, an uncertain source of financing, founders and boards of impact businesses may increasingly look to M&A and other strategic alternatives to assure their survival. Mergers, business and asset sales, large-scale technology licensing, as well as other strategies should all be on the table. ...›
Suz Mac Cormac, chair of the firm’s Energy and Social Enterprise and Impact Investing practices, spoke to The Recorder about how climate issues have created opportunities for law firms and their clients to help create positive change. “At first, the change was gradual, starting with pro bono work,” Suz said, but along the way “companies…started ...›
ClientSmart interviewed Morrison & Foerster’s Suz Mac Cormac, chair of the firm’s Social Enterprise and Impact Investing and Energy practices, about the Business Roundtable’s adoption of a new “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” The statement changes the definition of the purpose of a corporation to include not just shareholders but also stakeholders: customers, ...›
Morrison & Foerster partner Suz Mac Cormac co-authored an article with PG&E’s Brian Wong for ACC Docket, a publication by the Association of Corporate Counsel, that covers how climate change impacts companies and how board members should address the related risks and issues. “Ignoring the impact of climate change on business in the long term ...›