House Bill 878 (Laws of 2021) “An Act to Bring Gender Parity to Corporate Boards” provides that beginning in 2023, domestic publicly held corporations will have the following gender parity requirements: No later than June 1, 2023, a domestic publicly held corporation shall have a minimum of one female director on its board of directors. No later than June 1, 2024, a domestic publicly held corporation shall have: If the number of directors on its board of directors is 6 or more, the corporation shall have a minimum of 3 female directors; if the number of directors on its board of directors is 5, the corporation shall have a minimum of 2 female directors; if the number of directors on its board of directors is 4 or fewer, the corporation shall have a minimum of one female director.
House Bill 614, effective June 29, 2021, provides that the Department of the Secretary of State shall create a webpage on the department's publicly accessible website that provides information for the public regarding benefit corporations and the process for establishing such a corporation.
House Bill 878, enacted without the Governor’s signature on June 30, 2021, provides that a publicly held domestic corporation subject to the Maine Business Corporation Act shall comply with the following board of directors gender parity requirements: No later than June 1, 2023, it shall have a minimum of one female director on its board of directors. A corporation may increase the number of directors on its board to comply. No later than June 1, 2024, it shall comply as follows: (1) If the number of directors on its board of directors is 6 or more, the corporation shall have a minimum of 3 female directors, (2) If the number of directors on its board of directors is 5, the corporation shall have a minimum of 2 female directors, (3) If the number of directors on its board of directors is 4 or fewer, the corporation shall have a minimum of one female director.
"Female" means an individual who self-identifies as a woman, without regard to the individual's designated sex at birth. "Publicly held domestic corporation" means a corporation with outstanding shares listed on a major United States stock exchange.
The corporation law was further revised to provide the annual report shall set forth an indication as to whether the domestic corporation is publicly held; an indication of how many female directors are on the board of directors of the publicly held domestic corporation; and an indication as to whether the domestic publicly held corporation has the minimum number of female directors required.
Senate Bill 271, June 29, 2021, amends the nonprofit corporation law to provide that in the discretion of the board of directors, a meeting of members may be held entirely through means of remote communication without a specific site for the meeting or partially through means of remote communication.
Legislative Document 1519, effective September 19, 2019, provides for the establishment of benefit corporations.