Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk recently testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission as it considers whether to adopt a rule proposal to permit shareholders to place candidates on the company ballot in certain situations.
Bebchuk has written and lectured extensively in support of the SEC proposal. Among other things, he recently published a study documenting the dearth of proxy challenges under existing rules, as well as edited a book on the subject, Shareholder Access to the Corporate Ballot, that Harvard University Press will publish this fall. At the hearings, Bebchuk suggested that the proposed rule a “safety valve,” which is “not expected to be used all the time, but it’s expected to be there.” He also described the significant empirical evidence that supports the proposed rule.
A transcript of the hearings, including Bebchuk’s comments, is available on the SEC web site.