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Supreme Court strengthens enforceability of arbitration provisions

In his first Supreme Court opinion, Justice Kavanaugh, writing for a unanimous court, held that when a contract delegates to arbitrators gateway questions regarding arbitrability of disputes, courts may not override that...more

New York attorney general launches fact-finding inquiry into trading platforms for virtual currencies

New York is the most recent to join the fray in state-led efforts to regulate the virtual currency markets. On April 17, 2018, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the launch of the Virtual Markets...more

US District Court rules virtual currencies are commodities

On March 6, 2018, the Eastern District of New York was the first federal court to rule that virtual currencies, also referred to as cryptocurrencies, are commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and that the...more

Cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and blockchain technology get multi-pronged attention at SEC Speaks 2018

Cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) were a recurring area of focus in presentations by multiple divisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission at its annual “The SEC Speaks” conference in Washington, DC on...more

Supreme Court limits anti-retaliation provisions only to whistleblowers who report violations to the SEC

On Wednesday, February 21, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the anti-retaliation protections of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) extend only to whistleblowers who report...more

What Happens in Vegas Doesn’t Always Stay in Vegas: Considerations When Discovery of Privileged Communications Is Sought in a...

In most instances, discovery disputes over applicability of a privilege are litigated in the same jurisdiction where the privileged relationship arose, and the availability of that privilege is clear. But what happens when a...more

Ninth Circuit Adds to Circuit Split on Dodd-Frank Anti-Retaliation Protection for Internal Whistleblowers

On Wednesday, March 8, 2017, a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Dodd-Frank anti-retaliation protection extends to whistleblowers who report alleged unlawful activity internally but not to the...more

FinCEN Issues Advisory to Financial Institutions on Suspicious Activity Reports of Cyber-Events and Cyber-Enabled Crime

On October 25, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), one of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s lead agencies in the fight against money laundering, issued an Advisory to Financial Institutions on Cyber-Events...more

Ethical Issues Implicated by Lawyers’ Use of Third-Party Cloud Services

Law firms increasingly turn to “cloud services” for processing and storing confidential client information because of their greater flexibility and efficiency. Use of “the cloud,” however, outsources the administration,...more

Legal Alert: SEC and PCAOB Address Independence Requirements in Audits Related to Broker-Dealers’ Financial Statements

Confirming that auditor independence continues to be a regulatory priority, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued orders on December 8,...more

Ten Items to Consider as FINRA’s Consolidated Supervision Rules Take Effect

On December 1, 2014, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) Consolidated Supervision Rules will take effect. The Consolidated Supervision Rules, which were approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange...more

What Does It Take to Make the SEC Happy? SEC Criticism of Broker-Dealers’ Due Diligence for Sales of Unregistered Securities...

To ensure that broker-dealers (BDs) do not inadvertently facilitate an unlawful distribution of securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission has long required BDs to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into the circumstances...more

FINRA Provides New Carve-Out Provisions to Include in Settlement and Confidentiality Agreements

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Member Firms have new language to include in their settlement and confidentiality agreements. On October 9, FINRA released Regulatory Notice (RN) 14-40, warning that firms are...more

Legal Alert: Largest SEC Whistleblower Award Could Have Been Larger

On September 22, 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced the largest-ever whistleblower award, more than double last year’s record-breaking award. According to the Order, the award, which will likely...more

The SEC Tackles Technicality

Within several months of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White’s announcement in late 2013 of a commitment to improving the SEC’s trial readiness, the Commission suffered a number of losses in federal...more

Second Circuit Rejects Extraterritorial Application of Dodd-Frank’s Whistleblower Anti-Retaliation Provision

On August 14, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the first U.S. appellate court to weigh in on the extraterritorial application of the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street...more

SEC Approves Rule Preventing Barters for Expungement Cooperation – What You Can Do to Ensure Compliance

On July 22, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) proposed Rule 2081, which prevents firms or associated persons from conditioning settlement or...more

Securities Class Action Defendants Can Rebut the Basic Fraud-on-the-Market Presumption of Reliance at the Class Certification...

The U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that defendants in securities fraud class actions can defeat the Basic fraud-on-the-market presumption of reliance at the class certification stage “through evidence that the...more

SEC Launches First Whistleblower Retaliation Case Under Dodd-Frank

On June 16, 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated and resolved its first case charging an employer with unlawfully retaliating against a securities whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street...more

SEC Issues $875,000 Whistleblower Award

On June 3, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) issued a whistleblower award to two individuals who had provided information leading to a successful SEC enforcement action. The whistleblower...more

SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower Warns Companies and Inside Counsel Against Using Employment Incentives to Deter External...

During a recent panel discussion at the Georgetown University Law Center’s 18th Annual Corporate Counsel Institute, the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Whistleblower, Sean McKessy, warned...more

Are we headed toward “Basic writ small”?

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday in the closely watched Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., No. 13-317, which places in the Court’s crosshairs the continued viability of the fraud-on-the-market...more

Supreme Court Expands SOX Whistleblower Protection to Employees of Private Contractors of Public Companies

In the first SOX whistleblower case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court held on March 4 that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) prohibits private contractors of publicly traded companies from retaliating...more

M&A Brokers Exempt from SEC Broker-Dealer Registration Requirements

On January 31, 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Trading and Markets issued a No-Action Letter (Letter)1 that allows a private business broker (M&A Broker) to receive transaction-based...more

SEC’s Examination Program Issues a Risk Alert on Investment Adviser Due Diligence Processes

On January 28, 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued a Risk Alert entitled: Investment Adviser Due Diligence Processes for Selecting...more

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