DealLawyers.com Blog

Wachtell recently penned an HLS blog with their top ten trends for activism in 2027. Here are the two points that stood out most to me:

Activism is No Longer the Crisis It Once Was. The sheer volume of activism activity in the post-COVID era has reduced some of the novelty and reputational risk once associated with being targeted by an activist. Many activist campaigns also employ the same set of themes and templates, typically calling for some combination of board or management changes, M&A, capital return, and/or operational changes. New funds with no activist history call themselves activists to garner attention and raise capital. While media coverage may treat every activist engagement as a newsworthy event, it no longer necessarily generates the same sense of crisis inside the boardroom or among the shareholder base. Companies increasingly understand that an activist approach is not, by itself, evidence of any failure or a reflection of broader investor sentiment.

Summer is the New Fall. Activism for any given proxy season has tended to kick off in the fall, often centered around various activism conferences at which activist funds will announce their top targets. More recently, activists have been initiating private engagement with companies earlier in the calendar year, sometimes approaching companies over the summer in the first few months after an annual meeting, almost a year before they could win any seats in a contested election. Because many activists—especially the larger, more prolific ones—evaluate multiple potential activism targets at once, the nature of an initial contact can offer helpful clues about the seriousness and maturity of the activist’s thesis. Early engagement can be useful, both to understand the activist’s perspective and to demonstrate responsiveness. Still, an early approach needs to be managed in a way that allows the management team and board to focus on the business and does not create unreasonable expectations as to what level of access an activist will be afforded over the course of a year.

As readers who also follow our other blogs already know, our 2026 Proxy Disclosure & 23rd Annual Executive Compensation Conferences are less than 3 weeks away! One of the authors of this post, Wachtell’s Lina Tetelbaum, is speaking on our “Fireside Chat with Top Activism Defense Lawyers” alongside Latham’s Michele Anderson and Skadden’s Elizabeth Gonzalez-Sussman. Our Proxy Disclosure Conference also includes panels on “The Fate of Shareholder Proposals,” “Shareholder Engagement & Proxy Voting: Turning Tides” and “The SEC All-Stars: Proxy Season Insights.” Day 2, our Executive Compensation Conference, includes panels on “Your Compensation Disclosures: New & Improved (We Hope)!” and “Navigating ISS & Glass Lewis.” There’s still time to register online or contact us at info@CCRcorp.com or 1-800-737-1271. 

– Meredith Ervine