Climate, Cyber and #MeToo: Reporting to the Board on Three Key Areas of ESG Risk
Registration begins at 11:30 am

Issues relating to climate change, cybersecurity and corporate culture have become major areas of interest for public and private company stakeholders, including employees, customers and investors. Not surprisingly, directors are taking proactive steps to educate themselves on these hot-button governance issues to ensure that they are appropriately monitoring and overseeing these risks. Please join us for a discussion regarding the broadening world of ESG-issues and the role of the corporate secretary in keeping the Board informed. We will discuss the rise of investor interest in these subjects, the unique challenges of reporting to the Board on ESG issues, the current status of climate change litigation, recent SEC guidance on cybersecurity disclosures, and more.

SPEAKERS

Nicole Clark, Occidental Petroleum Corporation
Nicole is Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Oxy. In this role, Nicole advises the board of directors and senior management on corporate governance matters. In addition to her Corporate Secretary responsibilities, Nicole provides support to the Oxy Legal group on securities regulation and other corporate legal matters. Nicole joined Oxy in June 2014 and has over 20 years of corporate legal experience. Prior to joining Oxy, Nicole was Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for a private equity-backed industrial distributor to the energy and petrochemical markets. Before that, she was with Vinson & Elkins for 12 years where she was a Corporate Partner specializing in mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation and corporate governance. Nicole began her legal career in New York at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz where she was a Corporate Associate. Nicole holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting, magna cum laude, from Texas A&M University and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School. She has been admitted to both the Texas and New York State Bars and is a Licensed Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in Texas. 

Sarah Fortt, Vinson & Elkins LLP 
Sarah’s areas of focus are corporate governance, board representation and securities law. She advises clients, including public companies and their boards of directors, on corporate governance, securities law and regulatory matters, including exchange listing standards, and investor outreach and relations. She also advises clients Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements, board and committee procedures and governance documents, board and senior management succession planning, shareholder engagement and corporate governance activism. Sarah’s areas of expertise also include board-level crisis preparedness, cybersecurity and cyber-risk considerations, and environmental and social governance matters and disclosures, including climate change-related disclosures. For more information about Sarah, click here.

Margaret Peloso, Vinson & Elkins LLP
Margaret’s areas of practice are environmental law and climate change. With respect to climate change, she handles a variety of matters, including advising on climate change risk management, with a particular emphasis on the changing regulatory environment, and climate change adaptation issues. Margaret works on a variety of complex environmental litigation matters, with a particular focus on issues related to expert witnesses and the use of scientific evidence in litigation. She also deals extensively with the notice and comment process on a wide range of federal environmental regulations For more information about Margaret, click here.