In January and February 2026, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) issued, revised, and withdrew several C&DIs addressing corporate transactions and capital markets practices. The full set of January and February releases is linked below:

Continue Reading SEC Updates C&DI Guidance: January and February 2026 Roundup – Part 3

In January and February 2026, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) issued, revised, and withdrew several C&DIs addressing corporate transactions and capital markets practices. The full set of January and February releases is linked below:

Continue Reading SEC Updates C&DI Guidance: January and February 2026 Roundup – Part 2

In January and February 2026, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) issued, revised, and withdrew several C&DIs addressing corporate transactions and capital markets practices. The full set of January and February releases is linked below:

Continue Reading SEC Updates C&DI Guidance: January and February 2026 Roundup – Part 1

On February 27, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules implementing the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act, or HFIAA. As expected, the final rules require directors and officers of foreign private issuers with a class of equity securities registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act to report their beneficial ownership and transactions on Forms 3, 4, and 5. The rules take effect on March 18, 2026, meaning initial Form 3 filings are due in less than three weeks. The final rules contain no major surprises, and address several interpretive questions that remained open following enactment. As the SEC noted in explaining its decision to forgo notice-and-comment rulemaking, the amendments “simply conform the Commission’s rules and forms to the requirements of HFIA Act and involve limited exercise of agency discretion.” In this alert, we highlight the most significant clarifications and practical considerations for compliance. For additional background on HFIAA, please refer to our prior alert, Section 16(a) Insider Reporting: Legislation Ends Foreign Private Issuer Exemption.Continue Reading Section 16(a) Reporting: SEC Adopts Final Rules for Foreign Private Issuers

On January 28, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Corporation Finance, Division of Investment Management, and Division of Trading and Markets (the “Divisions”) published a joint statement providing taxonomies for tokenized securities (the “Guidance”).[1] The Guidance is intended to assist market participants active in tokenized products to ensure compliance with federal securities laws.Continue Reading SEC Staff Issues Guidance on Tokenized Security Taxonomies

I. Introduction

In November 2025, the Division of Corporate Finance (the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced that it would no longer provide substantive responses to most no-action requests for shareholder proposals during this proxy season. Since this announcement (the “Announcement”), public companies have found themselves in uncharted territory. While companies may request a response from the Staff if they provide an unqualified representation that the company has a reasonable basis to exclude the proposal under Rule 14a-8, the Staff will only issue a no-action response based on that unqualified representation, and not based on any independent analysis of the merits of the arguments presented. Without the added assurance of the SEC’s substantive review, a number of companies have refreshed their strategic approach to no-action letters this proxy season. The exclusion notices[1] that have been submitted since the Announcement provide a glimpse into emerging trends regarding how companies and their legal counsel are interpreting the announcement and navigating this unguided landscape.Continue Reading The NAL Landscape Post-SEC Announcement

2026 promises to be a year that will demand both agility and strategic foresight from boards of directors and management as they navigate unprecedented challenges.

Drawing on insights from colleagues across Cleary Gottlieb’s global offices, our 2026 edition of Selected Issues for Boards of Directors examines the critical issues that dominated boardroom discussions in 2025 and identifies the emerging trends that will shape board agendas in the year ahead.

Continue Reading Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2026

On January 7, 2026, the White House issued an Executive Order (EO) titled “Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting,” announcing an effort to “accelerate defense procurement and revitalize the defense industrial base” by preventing “major defense contractors” from “conduct[ing] stock buy-backs or issu[ing] dividends at the expense of accelerated procurement and increased production capacity.”[1]  The EO states that going forward there will be limitations on the ability of defense contractors who are “underperforming on their contracts” to pay dividends or buy-back stock, at least until such time as they are “able to produce a superior product, on time and on budget,” pursuant to their existing defense contracts.  The Secretary of the U.S. Department of War (the “Secretary”) is empowered to identify underperformers and initiate remediation or enforcement.[2]Continue Reading Executive Order on “Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting” – Key Implications for Defense and Government Contractors

On December 18, 2025, the President of the United States signed into law the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act (“HFIAA”), making officers and directors of foreign private issuers (“FPIs”) subject to public reporting of holdings of, and transactions in, the issuers’ equity securities under Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). The new law will become effective on March 18, 2026.Continue Reading Section 16(a) Insider Reporting: Legislation Ends Foreign Private Issuer Exemption

In Augenbaum v. Anson Investment Master Fund LP et al., the Southern District of New York recently denied a motion to dismiss in a case seeking short-swing profit disgorgement relating to trades that generated ~$500 million by an alleged investor “group”.[1]Continue Reading Sections 13/16: Group Formation & Short-Swing Profit Disgorgement