In Toppan Merrill's new "Governance and Disclosure" (page 2), Hunton Andrews Kurth Partner Scott Kimpel, Cornell Law Professor Charles Whitehead, and The Conference Board Governance Center Advisory Board Co-Chair Bill Ide weigh in on whether, how, and to what extent proxy advisory firms should be regulated.
Notably, all three experts advocate SEC oversight due to the firms' influence in the proxy voting process and - relatedly - the potential for their voting recommendations to be based on inaccurate or incomplete information, and real or perceived conflicts of interest. In particular, the firms' influence and impact on the voting process - coupled with their virtually complete lack of regulatory oversight - is perceived as inexplicably anomalous relative to other proxy process participants.