Category: News
2026 Government Shutdown: What’s New, What’s Not
By Liz Dunshee On Saturday, January 31, funding lapsed for many government agencies – including the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unlike the government shutdown we experienced last fall, many folks expect the current shutdown to be short-lived – possibly ending this week. However, for companies trying to get to market, […]
Urgent: Pre-Shutdown Accommodation for Eligible IPO Issuers
By Liz Dunshee and Reid Hooper Our Cooley teams are working with clients to plan ahead for the looming government shutdown. For companies on the verge of the IPO, the staff has informally shared an important pre-shutdown accommodation that we didn’t have during the last go-round. The staff of the […]
Is Your Registration Statement About to Get a Whole Lot Easier?
By Liz Dunshee Last week, SEC Chair Paul Atkins announced that the staff would be taking a comprehensive look at Regulation S-K, which drives most of the line item disclosure requirements that apply to public companies and companies looking to go public. To give you a sense of what a […]
Nasdaq’s ‘Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’
By Liz Dunshee I don’t know about you, but the transition from one year to the next always feels like a good time to declutter. I’ve spent the past few weeks doing that, and now I’m focusing on not accumulating junk in the first place. As it turns out, the […]
California’s Proposed ‘Billionaire Tax’: Nine Things to Know
By Liz Dunshee A proposed California ballot initiative – “The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act” (also known as Initiative 25-0024) – has been getting a lot of attention, and it could have implications for business valuations, capital structures and other decisions in the coming year. Here are nine things to know: […]
Artificial Intelligence: How the New Executive Order Affects Your Compliance and Disclosures
By Liz Dunshee On December 11, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) seeking to limit states’ regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and instead establish “a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI.” Cooley’s alert summarizes the EO and explains what it could mean for corporate compliance programs. […]
Navigating the Government Shutdown: SEC Operations and Your Offering (Live Updates)
November 13, 2025 By Liz Dunshee Your Post-Shutdown IPO Roadmap The 43-day government shutdown is (finally) over, with an appropriations bill signed into law late on Wednesday, November 12th, and the SEC Staff promptly returning to work on Thursday, November 13th. Right away, the Division of Corporation Finance issued 9 […]
Nasdaq Revisits Listing Requirements (Again): Proposing Stricter Criteria for New and Continued Listings
By Liz Dunshee As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog, recent proposals and commentary from Nasdaq show that the exchange is focused on encouraging capital formation. That post addressed Nasdaq’s efforts to modernize market infrastructure and make it easier to be a public company. This post discusses proposals […]
Nasdaq Revisits Listing Requirements (Again): Proposing Simpler Paths to Going and Staying Public
By Liz Dunshee A series of recent Nasdaq proposals make it more important than ever for smaller companies to closely monitor compliance. At the same time, they show that Nasdaq wants to send a market signal about the quality of its listed companies and encourage capital formation. The recent updates […]