Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2022

Each year, we ask colleagues from around our firm to boil down the issues in their fields that boards of directors will be facing in the coming year.  In the following pages, we present the results for 2022  - focused updates on 16 topics that will feature on board agendas throughout the year.

The concerns and practices of public companies are evolving rapidly, driven in part by changing expectations on the part of institutional investors and other stakeholders, in part by cultural and political changes and in part by all the adaptations the pandemic has prompted.  We explore this evolution from several different angles with respect to ESG and sustainability, shareholder engagement in general and activist practices in particular.

Other topics stem from the agendas of regulators.  We discuss priorities of Biden administration appointees that have come into focus over the past year  - notably in the areas of competition law, securities regulation and sanctions practices  - but there are longer-term developments at work as well, in areas like international coordination of tax policy.  European regulatory developments are also increasingly driving board agendas, in areas like privacy, competition and sustainability.  In all these areas, enforcement risk is on the rise and board supervision is more critical than ever.

We invite you to review these topics by clicking on the headings listed below.