Donald H. Meiers

Don Meiers is a securities, corporate finance, corporate governance and transactions lawyer with private practice, in-house and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) experience. His practice focuses on assisting public companies increase or maintain their market valuations through:
- value-enhancing, transforming transactions;
- quality, transparent communications with shareholders and other market participants; and
- sound corporate governance and internal controls.
Don’s experience encompasses representing Fortune 500 and smaller public companies in connection with:
· public and private offerings under the Securities Act of 1933
· international merger and acquisition transactions
· cross-border tender offerings
· periodic reporting under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (e.g., 20-Fs, 10-Ks, 10-Qs, 8-Ks, proxy statements, Section 16 reports); and
Don’s practice also includes assisting small to medium-sized non-public companies and larger, international concerns structure and negotiate a variety of transactions to achieve desired financial, tax and operational objectives, including:
· commercial loans
· business ventures
· corporate acquisitions and sales
· cross-border financings
· commercial lease transactions
In his years as a member of the SEC staff (in the mid-90s), he served as an investor advocate, principally by providing feedback to SEC-reporting companies to elicit enhanced disclosure in transactional filings (e.g., registration statements filed under the Securities Act of 1933, merger proxy statements/registration statements, and periodic reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934).
Don is a creative and entrepreneurial thinker with a business/client orientation, looking for ways to contribute to an organization and render legal services more quickly, cheaply, efficiently and to a higher quality. Throughout his entire career as a lawyer, Don has explored ways in which the legal profession can reduce the asymmetry of knowledge that exists between lawyers and their clients.
Over the past several years, Don has been aspiring to revolutionize the way legal services are rendered – through technology – so as to reduce or eliminate the “re-inventing the wheel” costs and other inherent inefficiencies associated with one-to-one consultative services and the prevailing billable hour revenue model. In that regard, he has built out the content for several contemplated software applications with a regulatory/compliance focus, applications designed to assist users navigate complex regulatory regimes at a fraction of the cost associated with existing processes.
Publications
Will Congress’s Efforts to Curb “Excessive” Executive Compensation Prove Effective?, Directors & Boards, Boardroom Briefing, Winter 2008
Shutting the Floodgates, Corporate Secretary Magazine, December 2008
U.S. Corporate Governance “Best Practices”: A Case of Sheep-Like Behavior, Corporate Board Member, May 21, 2008
Should Non-US Companies in the SEC’s Reporting System Get Out Now?, International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Volume 4, November 2007, pages 236-278
The MD&A Challenge: The difficulty of crafting robust, quality disclosure, Journal of Accountancy, January 2006, pages 59-66
CEO/CFO Certifications under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, How far out on a limb are you?, Compliance Week, 2005
Capital Adventures; Watch Your Step on the Web, TECH capital, Vol. 2, No. 5, November/December 1998, pages 35-36
Speaking/Training Engagements
Executive Enterprise Institute/Practicing Law Institute, Addressing Corporate Governance Problems Before They Occur: A Critical Look at Post-SOX U.S. Corporate Governance “Best Practices,” Fall 2007 and Spring 2008
Executive Enterprise Institute/Practicing Law Institute, Shall We MD&A? An Overview of the Basic Steps of MD&A Preparation and Tips to Enhance the Quality and Transparency of MD&A Disclosure, Fall 2006, Spring and Fall of 2007 and 2008
Rutgers Business School, Inaugural International Conference sponsored by the International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, SOX’s 5th Birthday: A No Holds Barred Debate of the Good, the Bad and the Unresolved, Newark, NJ, September 21, 2007
Education
Cornell Law School (Business Law)
Cornell University Johnson School of Management (M.B.A., Finance)
Bar Admissions
District of Columbia
Virginia
New York