The Future of DEI Shareholder Proposals
Following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests against racial inequity in 2020, many companies increased their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as their external discussion of DEI. We also saw an increase in the number of shareholder proposals submitted to companies, including from progressive groups, promoting […]
Wendy Grasso is a Counsel in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practice and the Corporate Governance practice, Merritt Steele is a Practice Support Lawyer for Public Companies, Corporate Governance and Capital Markets, and David A. Bell is a Partner at Fenwick & West LLP and is Co-Chair of the firm’s Corporate Governance practice. This post is based on their Fenwick memorandum.
Following the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests against racial inequity in 2020, many companies increased their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as their external discussion of DEI. We also saw an increase in the number of shareholder proposals submitted to companies, including from progressive groups, promoting DEI initiatives and/or requesting that companies evaluate and report on the effectiveness of their DEI programs. For purposes of this article, we refer to these proposals as “pro-DEI proposals.”
However, for the 2023 proxy season, we began to see a shift in the number and composition of shareholder proposals related to DEI, with the number of pro-DEI proposals declining and the number of equality-related proposals from conservative or libertarian groups increasing. For purposes of this article, we refer to these proposals as “anti-DEI proposals.”
