The Advisors' Blog

The purview of compensation committees has expanded drastically in recent years, with an expectation that compensation committees oversee a myriad of topics under the umbrella of HCM—from pay equity to corporate culture and talent development. At the same time, the topics historically addressed by compensation committees are increasingly complex, with newly required disclosures and policies.  This Compensation Committee Handbook from the Executive Compensation and Benefits Group at Skadden is intended to help compensation committee members better understand their responsibilities and arm them with the necessary information to discharge those responsibilities, including by explaining some key technical rules, deliberately written in a nontechnical manner.  Here’s an excerpt describing the new content in the ninth edition:

We discuss the developments over the past year to executive and director compensation practices and related trends, particularly with respect to the SEC’s new clawback rule in connection with the Dodd-Frank Act (discussed principally in Chapter 2), new pay-versus-performance disclosure requirements (discussed principally in Chapter 4) and continued attention on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations (each discussed principally in Chapter 10).

For corporate secretaries of NYSE-listed companies, check out the illustrative compensation committee calendar in the appendix.

This guide is posted along with checklists, sample charters and memos in our “Compensation Committees” Practice Area.

– Meredith Ervine