Exxon Mobil recently sued two socially responsible investors in an attempt to invalidate an ESG-related shareholder proposal. The investors have since decided to withdraw the resolution.
Litigation & enforcement partner Rob Skinner told the Financial Times Agenda Week that the proposal was unlikely to garner a greater share of support this time around — so Exxon’s motives must have lain elsewhere. “Exxon [was] still sufficiently motivated to go to court rather than try its luck with the SEC staff again to make a public stand on activists and how they put proposals out there, with some not-so-subtle criticisms of the SEC,” he said.
Rob explained that he does not expect “a flood” of these suits going forward because “it’s not clear that other companies are as motivated as Exxon to seek court intervention with respect to a shareholder proposal that is not at all likely to pass anyway.”
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