Patents to Save the Planet
- Suz Mac Cormac, Rufus Pichler, and Otis Littlefield argue that patent licensing is a potentially powerful tool to address climate change in an article authored for Intellectual Property Magazine. “Increasingly, companies with green technology are also focused on monetizing environmental benefits,” the authors wrote.... ›
IRS Rules That Impact Investment Fund Is Not Charitable Activity
By: Susan H. Mac Cormac, Stephanie C. Thomas and Linda A. Arnsbarger
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... ›Impactful Conversations: Discussing Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
By: Michael P. Santos
In this episode of Impactful Conversations, Michael Santos, a social enterprise and impact investing associate in Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office, interviews Bulbul Gupta, the president and CEO of Pacific Community Ventures (PCV), a Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) fund based in Oakland,... ›Impactful Conversations: A Conversation with Andrew Macintosh at March Fund
By: Susan H. Mac Cormac
In this episode of Impactful Conversations, Susan Mac Cormac, the chair of MoFo’s Energy and Social Enterprise and Impact Investing practices, interviews Andrew Macintosh, the COO and CFO of the March Fund—a tech fund focused on the development of food and health solutions that support... ›Recent Changes in Human Capital and D+I for Public Companies
By: Jackie Liu and Alfredo B. D. Silva
On August 26, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced, as part of its ongoing initiative to modernize Regulation S-K disclosure, amendments that add human capital resources as a separate disclosure topic, including any human capital measures or objectives that issuers focus on... ›New California Law to Require Representation from “Underrepresented Communities” on Boards of Public Companies Headquartered in California
By: Jackie Liu and Alfredo B. D. Silva
California’s Assembly Bill (“AB”) 979 is set to make waves both within the state and across the country as a groundbreaking new law that would require companies to diversify their boards and reserve seats for directors from “underrepresented communities.” The bill defines a director... ›Capital Markets Embrace a Novel Corporate Form
By: Alfredo B. D. Silva and Susan H. Mac Cormac
In 2013, Delaware passed legislation adopting a new corporate form, the public benefit corporation (PBC), with a view to allowing directors of for-profit corporations to take actions not just in pursuit of stockholder returns, but also with the “[intent] to produce a public benefit... ›SASB and GRI Team Up to Tackle the Opaque Landscape of ESG Reporting
By: Alfredo B. D. Silva
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... ›ESG Goes Mainstream: How “Return First” PE Funds Can Factor ESG Considerations into Their Investment and Portfolio Management Strategies
By: Susan H. Mac Cormac
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.... ›MoFo Spearheads California Task Force to Save Small Businesses
By: Susan H. Mac Cormac, Michael P. Santos, Alfredo B. D. Silva and Olga Terets
When California became the first state to go into COVID-19-related lockdown in late March, Morrison & Foerster San Francisco-based corporate partner Susan (Suz) Mac Cormac was alarmed by what she knew would be a devastating impact on the state’s small businesses. Her concern was compounded by... ›