Proxy Advisors

Section 9 of 9

Primary authorities and further reading

Bluebook 21st format. Every footnote source carries an active hyperlink to its primary host; secondary practitioner alerts cited only as commentary.

Long-form source as of v1.6 · 2026-08-05

Sources · primary authorities and further reading
  1. Tex. S.B. 2337, 89th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2025) (signed June 20, 2025; eff. Sept. 1, 2025); codified at Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ann. ch. 6A — Proxy Advisory Services (West 2025); Petition, State of Texas v. Institutional S’holder Servs. Inc. (471st Jud. Dist. Ct., Collin Cnty., filed May 20, 2026), Cause No. 471-03459-2026 (per The Texas Lawbook); Exxon Mobil Corp., Definitive Additional Materials (Schedule 14A), SEC accession nos. 0001193125-26-219320 (May 12, 2026) and 0001193125-26-226496 (May 15, 2026). SMU CGI links each filing directly. The DEFA14A accessions are issuer filings; the petition is an unadjudicated pleading. ↑ back
  2. See infra § 2 (Figure 6 build-map). Layers 01–03 are scheduled for Q1 2027 cadence; Layer 04 case identification is active; Layer 05 is the live regulatory tracker. ↑ back
  3. See generally Stephen J. Choi, Jill E. Fisch & Marcel Kahan, The Power of Proxy Advisors: Myth or Reality?, 59 Emory L.J. 869 (2010) (foundational empirical treatment). Plain-English framing tracks the academic literature without overstating “robovote” intuition. ↑ back
  4. Nadya Malenko & Yao Shen, The Role of Proxy Advisory Firms: Evidence from a Regression-Discontinuity Design, 29 Rev. Fin. Stud. 3394 (2016); see also Paul Rose, The Corporate Governance Industry, 32 J. Corp. L. 887 (2007) (foundational regulatory treatment); Marcel Kahan & Edward B. Rock, Symbolic Corporate Governance Politics, 94 B.U. L. Rev. 1997 (2014). ↑ back
  5. Deutsche Börse AG, Deutsche Börse Successfully Completes Acquisition of ISS (Feb. 26, 2021); Peloton Capital Management, Partnerships — Glass Lewis; Guerdon Assocs., Proxy Adviser Glass Lewis Is Acquired (Apr. 12, 2021). ISS’s parent corporation (Deutsche Börse via STOXX) and Glass Lewis’s parent (Peloton Capital + Stephen Smith) are themselves Category 2 (ownership/affiliate) conflict facts. ↑ back
  6. Choi/Fisch/Kahan, supra note 3 (effect sizes vary materially by ballot type and identification strategy); Malenko/Shen, supra note 4 (RD design produces vote-effect estimates substantially smaller than naive correlations). SMU CGI reports effect sizes study-by-study, not as a single headline range, per allegation-discipline standing rule. ↑ back
  7. Malenko & Shen, supra note 4 (operational construct for advisor-following share via discontinuity at recommendation threshold). ↑ back
  8. Build-map status as of 2026-05-24. Layer 05 is the only fully-live layer. Layer 04 case identification active. Layers 01–03 are scheduled toward Q1 2027 empirical cadence. ↑ back
  9. Deutsche Börse press release, supra note 5; Peloton Capital Management, supra note 5; Gibson Dunn, Texas Court Blocks Enforcement of New Texas Proxy Advisor Law Against ISS and Glass Lewis (Aug. 30, 2025) (case captions and presiding-judge identifications verified); Joshua Apfelroth et al., Glass Lewis to End Benchmark Proxy Voting Policy: What Companies Should Know, Harv. L. Sch. Forum on Corp. Governance (Oct. 29, 2025); Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Glass Lewis to End Benchmark Proxy Voting Policy (Oct. 20, 2025) (secondary); Glass Lewis, A Personal Commitment to Change Proxy Voting Practices (Nov. 25, 2025) (official announcement: multiple research perspectives, client-custom frameworks, and the statement that Glass Lewis “will register” with the SEC as an investment adviser). ↑ back
  10. Tex. S.B. 2337, 89th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2025); Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ann. ch. 6A; Tex. Bus. & Com. Code ch. 17 (DTPA); Gibson Dunn alert, supra note 9 (practitioner commentary on statutory mechanics; cited as secondary). ↑ back
  11. Doctrinal-distinctness analysis follows the standard injunction-scope framework: a firm-specific Article III injunction binds the enjoined party (Texas AG) from enforcing the named statute (S.B. 2337) against the named plaintiffs (ISS, Glass Lewis); it does not by its terms reach a separate cause of action under a different statute (the DTPA) brought against one of those plaintiffs in state court. The interaction is itself a live legal question. ↑ back
  12. Docket, Inst. S’holder Servs. Inc. v. Paxton, No. 1:25-cv-01160-ADA (W.D. Tex. filed July 24, 2025); Complaint, Doc. 1, Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC v. Paxton (W.D. Tex. July 24, 2025). Glass Lewis docket: Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC v. Paxton, No. 1:25-cv-01153-ADA (W.D. Tex.) (Albright, J.). Caption and presiding judge (Albright, J.) confirmed via Gibson Dunn alert. ↑ back
  13. Gibson Dunn alert, supra note 9 (confirming firm-specific scope, preservation of private-plaintiff actions, and Feb. 2, 2026 trial date as of Aug. 30, 2025). ↑ back
  14. Petition, State of Texas v. Institutional S’holder Servs. Inc. (Collin Cnty. Dist. Ct. May 20, 2026); Office of the Tex. Att’y Gen., News Release Index; Paul Verney, Texas AG Files Lawsuit Against ISS in Ongoing Proxy Battle, Responsible Investor (May 21, 2026); Collin Eaton, Exxon Blasts Proxy Advisers for Conflict of Interest in Fight Over Texas Move, Wall St. J. (May 21, 2026). State pleadings are allegations, not adjudicated findings. Specific AG release slug pending direct verification. ↑ back
  15. Chronology assembled from sources cited in notes 1, 5, 9, 10, 12–14, and 17–19; institutional-actor coding by SMU CGI. ↑ back
  16. Conflict taxonomy is SMU CGI’s coding framework, adapting and extending Rose, supra note 4. Category 1 (issuer-paid consulting) and Category 2 (ownership/affiliate) are long-standing and disclosed; Category 3 (recommendation-model) is methodology-level; Category 4 (litigation/regulatory posture) emerged in May 2026 with the ExxonMobil DEFA14A allegations and remains pleaded, not adjudicated. ↑ back
  17. Exxon Mobil Corp., DEFA14A, EDGAR accession nos. 0001193125-26-219320 (May 12, 2026) and 0001193125-26-226496 (May 15, 2026). SMU CGI treats both as issuer-side allegations in regulatory-filing form. The recommendation-pattern allegation is testable against the SMU CGI Reincorporation Index cohort once Layer 01 launches. ↑ back
  18. Eaton, WSJ (May 21, 2026), supra note 14; Responsible Investor (May 21, 2026), supra note 14. Secondary contemporaneous reporting; cited as context, not as URL target for the underlying filings or pleadings. ↑ back
  19. 17 C.F.R. § 240.14a-2(b)(9); SEC, SEC Adopts Amendments to Modernize and Enhance the Accuracy and Transparency of Information Provided to Investors That Vote in Proxy Solicitations, Press Release 2020-161 (July 22, 2020); SEC, Final Rule, Release No. 34-95266 (July 13, 2022) (rescinding 2020 notice-and-awareness provisions); Nat’l Ass’n of Mfrs. v. SEC, No. 22-51069 (5th Cir. June 26, 2024) (vacating the 2022 rescission in part as arbitrary and capricious); see also Harv. L. Sch. Forum on Corp. Governance (July 16, 2024) (practitioner commentary; cited as secondary). ↑ back
  20. Open-questions inventory compiled by SMU CGI per project standing rule: explicit publication of items not yet adjudicated, verified, or empirically tested. ↑ back
  21. SMU CGI Reincorporation Index; SMU CGI Texas Business Court Codex; SMU CGI Hilltop Docket; SMU CGI ExxonMobil Redomestication Brief; SMU CGI Texas Corporate Law (Vertical 02); see also Shane Goodwin, How Texas Is Rewriting the Rules of Corporate Domiciles, CLS Blue Sky Blog (May 29, 2025); Shane Goodwin, The Texas Two-Step: Rewriting the Rules in the Battle for Corporate Domicile, 53 Sec. Reg. L.J., no. 4, Winter 2025, at 1. ↑ back

Explanatory note. Citations follow Bluebook 21st edition with pin cites and explanatory notes per SMU CGI project protocol. Every footnote source carries an active hyperlink to its primary host; practitioner alerts (Gibson Dunn, Skadden, Akin Gump, Harvard CorpGov) appear only as secondary commentary, never as URL targets for statutes, cases, agency rules, or court orders. Page status: published 2026-05-24; last revised 2026-08-06; status chips reflect verification posture at the revision date; live regulatory tracker continues to update.

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