Attorney Keith Johnson Co-Authors Article on Proxy Voting Reform for Boston University Law Review

Attorney Keith Johnson co-authors article for the Boston University Law Review (Vol 99, 2019) called Proxy Voting Reform - What is on the agenda, what isn't on the agenda, and why it matters for asset owners.

Investor proxy voting practices entered the public spotlight again in 2018 as Congress and the SEC considered changes to the rules which govern proxy voting. On November 15, 2018, the SEC held a roundtable to consider three issues: (1) the technical issue of proxy plumbing, which is how shareholder voting occurs and what to do about problems that regularly arise such as over voting (under voting, empty voting); (2) whether and how to regulate the two proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass; Lewis & Co.,  that together advise institutional shareholders on voting their shares; and (3) whether and how to reform the shareholder proposal system, by which shareholders can put items on the agenda for voting at the company’s Annual General Meeting.