Search results

To provide an overview of the guidance for proxy firms and investment advisers included in the Staff Legal Bulletin released this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after its four-year comprehensive review of the proxy system.

Discusses briefly the context in which the SEC’s review was conducted; the general themes of the guidance provided; the most notable aspects of the guidance; and the matters that were expected to be, but were not, addressed by the SEC.

The guidance does not go as far in regulating proxy advisory firms as many had anticipated it would. The key obligations specified in the guidance are imposed on the investment advisers who engage the proxy firms. The responsibilities, policies and procedures mandated do not change the fundamental paradigm that has supported the influence of proxy firms – that is, investment advisers continue to be permitted to fulfill their duty to vote client shares in a “conflict-free manner” by voting based on the recommendations of independent third parties, and continue to be exempted from the rules that generally apply to persons who solicit votes or make proxy recommendations.

The SEC staff states in the Bulletin that it expects that proxy firms and investment advisers will conform to the obligations imposed in the Bulletin “promptly, but in any event in advance of [the 2015] proxy season.”

Practical guidance from experienced M&A lawyers.

To inform on recent developments in shareholder activism, a phenomenon well-documented in North America and Europe and now spreading to Latin America, and summarize the key considerations for corporate boards.

The article discusses a recent development involving Cartica Capital, a USA hedge fund and minority shareholder in CorpBanca, a Chilean bank pursuing a merger with Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Latin America’s biggest bank by market value, Cartica.

Shareholder activism will continue to be an expanding global phenomenon.

Boards must continue to plan accordingly when structuring a strategic transaction, both in and outside the USA market.

Practical overview of recent developments in shareholder activism with a review of the key considerations for practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Jen Waring.

Jen provides a short biographical description of her life. She is then interviewed by Jerome.

Jen talks about her long battle with mental health problems and what has sustained her over this time. She talks about the crucial importance of support from both loved ones and professionals, as well as medication.

Single case studies are of course just one person’s story. Given Jen is an academic biologist, she not only has a unique way of looking at mental illness, she can see the potential of developing approaches in the biological understanding for people experiencing mental distress.

Jen’s account shows the need for long-term support for more severe mental health problems. There are no quick fixes! It also highlights the need for interventions at biological, psychological and social levels.

People need “somewhere to live, someone to love and something meaningful to do” (Rachel Perkins). Many sufferers do not have all three. Services may only be able to provide two of these.

Accounts of mental illness recovery by academics can often provide the authors with amazing insights into the world of the mentally distressed. They can also serve as an inspiration to the many students who experience mental distress.

In the process of the implementation of the eBologna program and the recent change of the university system, curricula at German universities have been redesigned; courses have been condensed and learning content has been re‐structured into modules, each of which requires an evaluation. Simultaneously, skills required for working in research and development changed; knowledge of mathematical or numerical algorithms and programming skills play an increasingly important role in the daily job routine of the working engineer. The purpose of this paper is to describe, implement and test a new course on numerical simulations along with a new software infrastructure, addressing this predicament.

To support learning by practical exercises, engineering faculties, the faculties of mathematics and physics, and the Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart setup a project for implementing an online programming lab for teaching the required skills. The focus of this project is to provide easy access to the necessary software tools, to avoid the overhead of installation and maintenance, and to seamlessly integrate these tools into the e‐learning infrastructure of the university.

Student evaluations showed a high acceptance of the project and the developed software is now well‐accepted and taken as a self‐evident part of the homework routine.

An online programming lab that integrates seamlessly into the e‐learning infrastructure of the university and is platform and system independent by following the established SCORM standard.

Purpose – This chapter considers the consequences on liberty in relationship to the development of the international problem-solving court movement.

Design/methodology/approach – The research, which relies principally on ethnographic fieldwork in six different common law countries (England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Canada, and the United States), explores the development of local problem-solving courts in each jurisdiction. These include drug courts, community courts, domestic violence courts, and mental health courts. The ethnographic fieldwork was supplemented with data from various other sources, including government reports, parliamentary debates, evaluations of individual court programs, publications issued by various advocacy groups, media accounts, public statements and articles by problem-solving court judges, and analyses of specialty courts in law reviews and other academic journals.

Findings – The research reveal that the five countries outside of the United States demonstrate greater concern with protecting the dignity of the court, due process, and individual rights – or what the Australians refer to as open and natural justice.

Originality/value – It is the first large-scale comparative study of problem-solving courts in the common law countries where the movement is most advanced.

The Deutscher Verband für Schweisstechnik (German Welding Society) made a very judicious and much appreciated choice of venue for its Third International Conference on 18–20 February, 1986, on Interconnection Technology in Electronics. Fellbach, less than 10 km from the Schlossplatz in Stuttgart, and whose past profile was shaped almost entirely by winegrowing, has become since the opening in 1976 of the Schwabenlandhalle a town renowned equally for its significance as a conference centre. With the vine‐crowned Kappelberg hill dominating the town and commanding views to the Neckar Valley, Swabian hospitality and friendliness at its best, and a most impressive congress hall with excellent facilities in picturesque snow‐clad surroundings, the ingredients for providing a conference venue conducive to an optimum interchange of technological information were certainly present.

Since India became a signatory to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), it has been increasingly involved in multilateral negotiations for opening up its borders to international trade in services. The GATS was negotiated in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1994, and regulates trade in all service sectors between its 149 member countries. Lawyers engaged in providing legal services in foreign countries generally act as ‘foreign legal consultants’ (FLC), providing advice on international law or other non‐domestic laws. India needs to liberalize its policy in foreign trade more in order to avail of the advantages of the globalization of trade in services. This research paper aims at understanding the setbacks to the liberalization of the Indian legal services sector and realizing the potential allowing the entry of FLCs in select areas of the sector and permitting the collaboration of Indian and foreign lawyers/law firms.

This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts.

Helmut Schmidt, product manager for Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG, the world's foremost manufacturer of harmonicas, accordions, melodicas, and ukuleles, was sitting at his desk reviewing his first assignment from the company's senior executive team. Schmidt had been asked to calculate the break-even point for the company's flagship product, the Marine Band harmonica, under a number of different scenarios.

After completing the exercise, students should be able to:

• Calculate unit contribution and margin

• Calculate break-even units and market share

Calculate unit contribution and margin

Calculate break-even units and market share