Following up on our series of shareholder engagement blogs, when engaging with ISS, there’s one thing that is at the top of the “Never Do” list. That is mentioning that your company subscribes to the services of ISS Corporate Solutions.

The research arm of ISS – the policy side – is the one that develops and applies the voting policies that ISS has. The clients for this research arm are institutional investors. ISS Corporate Solutions is a separate branch that sells services to companies, to help companies understand the policies that the research arm applies. There’s a wall between these two ISS entities, which ISS takes very seriously.

If you do mention you subscribe to ISS Corporate Solutions during a call with ISS’ research arm, that call will be immediately ended by ISS. They will then be forced to run that occurrence up the ladder within ISS – and it might wind up in you not being successful persuading ISS on an issue where you might have otherwise won the day.

So again, do NOT try to curry favor by ISS by mentioning – by even hinting – that ISS Corporate Solutions advised or otherwise helped your company do anything. Nary a word.

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Photo of Broc Romanek Broc Romanek

As a strategist for the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, Broc Romanek has a deep understanding of the regulatory and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Broc served as editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and DealLawyers.com, where he oversaw…

As a strategist for the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, Broc Romanek has a deep understanding of the regulatory and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Broc served as editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and DealLawyers.com, where he oversaw and managed coverage on issues related to ESG, corporate governance, executive pay, deals, and market trends and analysis.

In addition to his nearly two decades of working as a journalist and publisher, Broc served as assistant general counsel at a Fortune 50 company, worked in the Office of Chief Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance, was a counselor to former SEC Commissioner Laura Unger, and worked in private practice. He also is the author, or co-author, of four legal treatises, and has authored several books focused on the legal industry.