Ever since California enacted legislation in 2018 requiring a certain number of female board directors for publicly-held corporations with principal executive offices in California, board diversity continues to be a significant topic. Maryland, Massachusetts, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Washington, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania have introduced or passed legislation or resolutions related to board diversity. Likewise, in November 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Improving Corporate Governance Through Diversity Act of 2019” (H.R. 5084) related to, among other things, board diversity.
Teri Wilford Wood, a member of the Corporate Governance and Internal Investigations Practice Group, recently spoke on the topic of board diversity, providing additional insight on the issue. Given the significant level of activity in this area, we anticipate board diversity will remain an important topic in 2020.