From the Editor...

By now, mutual fund directors and others involved in boards' meetings are pros at conducting business in a virtual setting. And because concerns over the spread of COVID-19 persist, it is unlikely folks will be able to see the inside of a crowded boardroom anytime soon. For that reason, the SEC last month extended its relief from the in-person voting requirement through the end of the calendar year, meaning that most (if not all) boards will be meeting on screen from their homes for months to come. Given the way boards have adapted, is it feasible that the in-person voting relief will be made permanent in some way? Sidley Austin's Jay Baris and Nathan Greene discuss that very topic in our latest Viewpoints article, In-Person Board Meetings Are So 2019. 

While fund directors seem unlikely to be getting together in person anytime soon, the working public is beginning to look at when and how they will be able to return to the office. For sure some financial services firms are not planning to re-open until the fall or even 2021, but others are devising plans for getting back to some sort of normal sooner rather than later. We spoke with lawyers from Blank Rome about what returning to work might look like and, in the case of mutual fund firms, what the board should know about these plans.

On the legal front, a nearly two-year-old lawsuit against Highland Funds board members and the adviser was dismissed and has now been appealed by the plaintiff's lawyers. The case included a class-action complaint and three derivative claims and will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after Chief District Judge Barbara Lynn, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, granted defendants' motion to dismiss in late May.

If you missed any of our stories from the past month, catch up with the latest issue of FBV Monthly. The PDF is up on the site and downloadable with one click.

For now, 

Hillary Jackson, founding editor