Each year, Equilar looks to highlight critical areas that can potentially affect those dealing with compensation and governance issues in the upcoming year. The 2012 Compensation & Governance Outlook Report aims to cover a variety of emerging trends in the fields of executive and director pay, equity trends, and corporate governance, while also providing an array of disclosure examples to illustrate unique approaches to strategic matters. The majority of firms will not encounter all, or even most, of the trends in this report in the New Year; it is primarily intended as a starting point for discussions that will take place over the course of 2013.

The 2012 year can be identified by a number of unique identifiers including the presidential election, high-profile public offerings, the second year of Say on Pay, record setting stock prices as well as an unfortunate natural disaster that helped bring together a country. Reverberations for such a dynamic year will no doubt be felt well into 2013 as potential changes to government and regulatory agencies could significantly alter the business landscape causing the need for firms to adjust. Discussions between companies and shareholders will continue to drive changes as firms ensure the story they want told is communicated through a variety of mediums and methods. Concerns surrounding fairness in a number of areas including stock structure and pay will cause struggles between conflicting parties as focus continues to shift towards the decisions in the boardroom. Topics including shareholder engagement, board dynamics, Say on Pay, and pay for performance dominate this year’s report.

…continue reading: 2013 Compensation & Governance Outlook Report

Companies face a growing number of legal challenges, from patent wars to increased regulation from bills like Dodd-Frank to highly scrutinized mergers and acquisitions. With all these challenges the services of General Counsels cannot be undervalued in today’s economic climate. The General Counsel’s role has grown in dimension as companies have an increasing need for their top legal officer to set patent strategy, protect the company from harmful litigation while also overseeing increasingly complex legal aspects of M&A transactions. Although typically among a company’s leading executives, often reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, compensation for General Counsels is not always included in proxy statements.

…continue reading: 2012 Top General Counsel Compensation Report