M&I FORGETS DIRECTOR; RESENDS PROXY

[A Milwaukeeworld exclusive]
By Michael Horne


The Marshall & Ilsley Corporation [MI] spent $53 million last year on "professional services," which apparently included some sloppy legal work on the preparation of its Proxy Statement for the 2006 Annual Meeting of shareholders to be held on April 25, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. at the Pabst Theater.
The Milwaukee company, which operates the M&I banks, issued a supplement April 7th, long after its 17,463 shareholders of record had received their proxies (dated March 16th) and voting slips, which were also reissued. The company had paid a fee of $16,500 plus "administrative costs and out-of-pocket expenditures" to the firm of Morrow & Co. for the initial proxy solicitation.
According to the supplement, "John W. Daniels was inadvertently omitted from the list of independent directors of the Company on page 12 of the Proxy Statement. ... Mr. [Robert A.] Schaefer, who was included in the list, retired from the Company's Board of Directors last year."
Daniels, whose term on the board expires in April, 2008, is a Partner and member of the executive committee of Quarles & Brady, a Milwaukee law firm that receives a good share of M&I's millions in professional service expenditures as fees for such legal services as preparing accurate proxies to submit to shareholders, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Stock Exchange and regulatory officials of the six states in which the bank has offices.
Won't we have a good chuckle about that Tuesday morning at the Pabst? Cookies and pastries will be served.