Arthur F. Golden is the senior partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. This post is based on the introduction to a Davis Polk publication by Mr. Golden, Thomas J. Reid, and Laura C. Turano, and is reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through: Shareholder Activism & Engagement 2016 (published in January 2016; contributing editors: Arthur F. Golden, Thomas J. Reid, and Laura C. Turano, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP). The complete publication is publicly available here until April 6, 2016; for further information, please visit http://gettingthedealthrough.com.
At the end of another record-breaking year for shareholder activism activity, it is appropriate that we ring in the publication of this, the inaugural edition of Shareholder Activism & Engagement, part of the Getting the Deal Through series. We are pleased to serve as editors of this volume because we believe that shareholder activism is and will remain in sharp focus in financial markets, in the C-suite and in the boardroom, and that shareholder engagement is, and will continue to be, a leading and increasingly sophisticated priority. The international approach of the Getting the Deal Through series is especially apt for this topic, which we expect to become increasingly global over time, with ‘imports’ and ‘exports’ of shareholder activism and engagement between jurisdictions. Although the United States remains its dominant market, such activism and a heightened sensitivity to shareholder engagement is truly a global phenomenon.