Report Of The Task Force On Disclosure

Reviews forms and rules which relate to capital-raising transactions, periodic reporting pursuant to the Exchange Act, proxy solicitations, and tender offers and beneficial ownership reports under the Williams Act. The disclosure process is simplified and capital formation made more efficient and understandable.

SASB's Technical Bulletin on Climate Risk is designed to help investors better understand, measure and manage their exposure to climate-related risk. The research finds that climate change affects 72 out of 79 industries (93 percent of the capital markets, or $27.5 trillion) but manifests differently from one industry to the next. Due to the ubiquity of climate risk, investors can't simply diversify away from it; instead they must focus on managing it-and on encouraging portfolio companies to manage it-in all its forms. The foreword to the guide, authored by former Secretaries of the Treasury Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson, emphasizes the need for better disclosure. "If investors are to effectively evaluate climate risk, they need a far better understanding of granular, industry-specific climate impacts, with industry-specific standards by which to evaluate corporate performance on these issues. By adopting a set of industry-based market standards for disclosure, especially in SEC filings, investors will be able to accurately compare and contrast companies," they write. "This latest SASB bulletin is a good next step toward this goal, and offers for the first time a comprehensive guide to understand and measure the unique climate impacts across all industries of the economy."

Since the first edition of this invaluable book in 2012, third-party funding has become more mainstream in international arbitration practice. However, since even the existence of a third-party funding agreement in a dispute is often kept secret, it can be difficult to glean the specifics of successful funding agreements. This welcome book, now updated, expertly reveals the nuances of third-party funding in international arbitration, examines the phenomenon in key jurisdictions, and provides a reliable resource for users and potential users that may wish to tap into and make use of this distinctive funding tool. Focusing on Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and South Africa, the authors analyze and assess the legal regime based upon legislation, judicial opinions, ethics opinions, and practitioner anecdotes describing the state of third-party funding in each jurisdiction. In addition to updating summaries of the law of the various jurisdictions, the second edition includes a new chapter addressing third-party funding in investor-state arbitration. Among the issues raised and examined are the following: · payment of adverse costs; · “Before-the-Event” (BTE) and “After-the-Event” (ATE) insurance; · attorney financing: pro bono representation, contingency representation, conditional fee arrangements; · loans; · ethical doctrines affecting the third-party funding industry; · possible future bundling, securitization, and trading of legal claims; · risk that the funder may put its own interests ahead of the client’s interests; and · whether the existence of a funding agreement must or should be disclosed to the decision maker. The second edition also includes discussion of recent institutional developments as they relate to third-party funding, including the work of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding and how third-party funding is being incorporated into arbitral rules and investment treaties. Ably providing a thorough understanding of what third-party funding entails and what legal parameters exist, this book will be of compelling interest to parties aiming to take advantage of the high values, speed, reduced evidentiary costs, outcome predictability, industry expertise, and high award enforceability characteristic of the third-party funding arrangements available in international arbitration.

This document contains the final report of a California Task Force created to promote self-esteem and personal responsibility. It begins with an executive summary listing key principles of the task force and providing recommendations and discussions in each of six major areas upon which the report focuses. The next section presents the task force's vision and recommended action. Readers are guided into the 21st century as a time when Californians have integrated the principles of self-esteem and of personal and social responsibility into their personal lives and into their families, businesses, governments, and communities. The third section presents a definition of self-esteem and gives a commentary on the definition. Section 4 lists key principles for nurturing self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Section 5 examines further action and needed research. Section 6 represents the substantive results of the task force's investigation into the relationship between self-esteem and the social concerns of: (1) family (parenting, child abuse, teenage pregnancy); (2) education (schools and academic failure); (3) substance use and abuse; (4) crime and violence; (5) poverty and chronic welfare dependency; and (6) the workplace. Each major area is organized in two parts: first, general findings, and then policy recommendations with supporting data and program examples. Section 7 gives brief personal statements from task force members and section 8 consists of a brief conclusion. (NB)