NAFTA Replacement Announced

On Sunday, September 30, 2018, the U.S. and Canadian governments announced that they had reached agreement on a new trilateral trade agreement with Mexico, which will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This long-awaited text, released late in the day as the “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA),” is now available for public inspection.[1] The...

The SEC’s Recent Settlement with Tesla and Elon Musk Teaches Us a Valuable Corporate Governance Lesson

The SEC’s settlement with Tesla and Elon Musk teaches us some important corporate governance lessons on monitoring and vetting executive use of social media. As background, on August 7, 2018, the markets were surprised by a series of tweets initiated by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, Inc., in which Musk mused about taking Tesla...

What if You Miss the Deadline to File a Form D?

As a continuation of our August 9 post regarding the deadline for Canadian companies to file a Form D for a private placement in the United States, we now address the questions, “What if our company missed the deadline to file a Form D with the SEC?” And, more importantly, “Have we lost our ability to...

U.S. Employment in the #MeToo Era

The United States isn’t the only country addressing its history of gender inequality, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment. However, the United States is having its own unique experience in doing so. For U.S. employers, the current focus on these issues poses challenges, but also opportunities to address problems of diversity and harassment in the workplace....

Proposed Rulemaking to Update Environmental Review Process under National Environmental Policy Act – How Your Company Can Participate

One of the principal sources of uncertainty, expense, and delay in the permitting process for many mining and infrastructure projects in the United States, especially those generating public controversy, is compliance with the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). On June 20, 2018, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued an...

Analysis of the 60 Most Recent SEC Comment Letters Issued to Canadian Form 40-F Filers

Since January 1, 2016, the SEC has publicly released its correspondence relating to 60 comment letters sent to Canadian issuers with respect to annual reports filed on Form 40-F pursuant to the Canada-U.S. Multi-Jurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS). We have analyzed the content and key takeaways from these letters, including: The SEC’s most common areas of...

SEC Guidance on Cybersecurity Disclosure and Policies – Recap of Dorsey Webinar Presentation

Earlier this week, a panel of Dorsey attorneys presented a webinar on the SEC’s recent guidance on cybersecurity disclosures and policies, which included a detailed walk-through of the SEC’s 2018 guidance, including issues related to enhanced disclosure, insider trading, and Reg FD policies. The panel also discussed the impact of the SEC’s guidance within the...