Fight Brews as Proxy Access Nears

BY JEFFREY MCCRACKEN AND KARA SCANNELL

The largest U.S. businesses, law firms and business groups have stepped up their challenge to the "proxy access" rule, which would let certain shareholders use a company's board-election process to nominate directors opposed to management.

The campaign has ramped into high gear in recent weeks because the measure looks like it will be passed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in November. In a last-minute bid to derail or weaken the measure, opposing groups have dispatched both Washington lobbyists and grass-roots letter-writers.

"It's the biggest change relating to corporate governance ever proposed by the SEC. Period. It gives activists the ...