Meeting Safely, Legally: In the face of a pandemic, shareholder and board meetings go virtual.

• Author: Braverman, Beth
• Position: THE AGE OF RISK: Virtual Meetings

With schools, sporting events, and many businesses shut down in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus with "social distancing," many companies are scaling back or entirely eliminating in-person shareholder events and transitioning to virtual meetings instead.

Most public companies have historically held in-person meetings, providing an opportunity for shareholders to make sure management can hear their concerns. But this year, several high-profile companies have already announced entirely virtual meetings, and many others have said they're considering doing the same. As of publication, meeting announcements from corporations and proxy advisers--in addition to government orders of interaction to stem the spread of the virus--were changing by the hour.

Starbucks, which typically draws thousands to its annual meeting in Seattle, one of the first U.S. cities hard hit by COVID-19, moved its March 18 meeting online. Amazon announced it will conduct its May meeting the same way, and even Berkshire Hathaway s annual meeting in Omaha--known by fans as "Woodstock for Capitalists"--will be a virtual gathering this year on May 2.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Warren Buffett wrote that he regretted the move, because he considered the meeting a high point of the year.

"It is now clear, however, that large gatherings can pose a health threat to the participants and the greater community," Buffett wrote. "We won't ask this of our employees, and we won't expose Omaha to the possibility of becoming a 'hot spot' in the current pandemic."

Considering many factors

Moving meetings online seems like the obvious choice given today's available technology and the current restrictions on travel and large gatherings, but there are still many factors that boards must consider, and they need to consider them right away. Annual meeting season starts to really pick up around late April and May.

Louis Lehot, a Silicon Valley-based lawyer who works with both public and private directors, says many of his clients are drafting press releases and filings around a potential shift to virtual meetings, but they're taking a wait-and-see approach, given the quickly changing nature of COVID-19 societal restrictions.

"We don't really know where they're going to be in late April," he says. "Will we still have shelter-in-place? What will be the experience for the companies that do virtual meetings?"

Of course, changing plans for an annual meeting is just one part of a broader focus among boards right now to help guide their companies through the...