Last week, the SEC publicly announced a settled enforcement case against Keurig Dr. Pepper. The case focused on the company’s disclosure in its annual reports on Form 10-K on whether its K-Cup pods could (or would) be...more
The deadlines for filing and amending Schedule 13Gs are about to change, and regular 13G amendments will now be due on a quarterly basis instead of annually.
As we discussed in our alert last fall (available here), in...more
On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling overturning “Chevron deference,” a tool for interpreting ambiguous statutes administered by administrative agencies. The 40-year-old Chevron doctrine held...more
7/2/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Clean Air Act ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Statutory Interpretation
Proskauer’s Hedge Fund Trading Guide offers a concise, easy-to-read overview of the trading issues and questions we commonly encounter when advising hedge funds and their managers. It is written not only for lawyers, but also...more
4/12/2024
/ Big-Boy Letters ,
Breach of Duty ,
Debt ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Hedge Funds ,
Insider Trading ,
Investors ,
Materiality ,
Misappropriation ,
MNPI ,
Non-Public Information ,
Pecuniary Losses ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Third-Party ,
Web Scraping ,
White Collar Crimes
The SEC’s new rules imposing a T + 1 settlement cycle for most securities transactions take effect on May 28, 2024. The previous default settlement cycle had been T + 2. For firm commitment offerings priced after 4:30 p.m....more
Yesterday, the SEC voluntarily stayed its new ESG disclosure rules for public companies pending the outcome of several lawsuits that have been filed, which are now consolidated in the 8th Circuit US Court of Appeals. We...more
Proskauer’s Hedge Fund Trading Guide offers a concise, easy-to-read overview of the trading issues and questions we commonly encounter when advising hedge funds and their managers. It is written not only for lawyers, but also...more
Version 2.0 following publication of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Climate-Related Disclosure Rules -
A wave of new legislation and regulation in the U.S. and Europe has the potential to significantly...more
Version 2.0 following publication of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Climate-Related Disclosure Rules -
A wave of new legislation and regulation in the U.S. and Europe has the potential to...more
3/21/2024
/ Capital Markets ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
Multiple legal challenges have already been launched against the SEC’s new climate change disclosure rules. Plaintiffs include Attorneys General from several states, a large business trade organization and a private energy...more
3/19/2024
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Stays
The SEC’s recent enforcement settlement involving a fund manager highlights the SEC’s focus on an investor’s “control purpose” triggering the requirement to file on a Schedule 13D as opposed to a short-form 13G. At issue was...more
3/8/2024
/ Enforcement ,
Fund Managers ,
Hedge Funds ,
Investors ,
Passive Investments ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Schedule 13D ,
Schedule 13G ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Settlement ,
Swap Agreements
Two years after proposing rules on climate change disclosure, the SEC has adopted new rules, predictably by a split 3-2 vote. The adopted rules maintain the core of the original proposals, requiring that both domestic...more
A wave of new legislation and regulation in the U.S. and Europe has the potential to significantly impact the non-financial reporting obligations of U.S. companies. With the myriad of requirements overlaid with varying...more
2/9/2024
/ California ,
Capital Markets ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
EU ,
Non-Financial Firms ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Transparency Directive ,
UK ,
UK Regulatory Reforms
On January 24, 2024, the SEC adopted new rules that apply to SPAC transactions and the adopted rules largely track the agency’s proposals with some notable exceptions. The new rules will become effective 125 days after...more
1/26/2024
/ Capital Markets ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Dilution ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Compensation ,
New Rules ,
PSLRA ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
Shell Corporations ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Target Company
On December 19, 2023, the Fifth Circuit formally vacated the SEC’s buy-back disclosure rules. While it is unclear what, if any, action the SEC may take in response to this definitive ruling, the realistic options appear to be...more
12/20/2023
/ Appeals ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement ,
Form 10-K ,
New Rules ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stock Repurchases ,
Trading Policies ,
Vacated ,
Voluntary Disclosure
The SEC has been sued again in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, on the heels of that Court’s recent invalidation of the SEC’s newly-minted corporate buy-back rules. The new legal action asks the Court to...more
On October 13, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) adopted new Rule 10c-1a (the “Securities Lending Rule”), requiring the reporting of certain securities lending transactions. Certain material terms of...more
10/30/2023
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Confidential Information ,
Consolidated Audit Trail ,
EU ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Loans ,
Over The Counter Derivatives (OTC) ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SFTR ,
TRACE ,
UK
On October 13, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new Rule 13f-2 to require monthly reporting of short sale positions and activity data on new Form SHO by institutional investment managers. The new rules...more
On October 10, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to the rules governing beneficial ownership reporting under Sections 13(d) and 13(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The adopting release...more
10/20/2023
/ Beneficial Owner ,
Compliance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Hedge Funds ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Companies ,
Investors ,
New Amendments ,
Private Funds ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Schedule 13D ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Security-Based Swaps
Corporate buy‑back plans will be impacted this year both by the adoption of new rules directly addressing such plans, and new rules related to advance stock trading plans that permit trading to continue even when in...more
A potentially overlooked but important issue that public companies should have in mind when granting option or option-like awards is avoiding the unintentional appearance of “spring-loading” and “bullet-dodging,” both of...more
7/7/2023
/ Compensation ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Incentive Compensation ,
Investigations ,
Marketing ,
Proxy Statements ,
Restricted Stocks ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Shareholders ,
Stock Prices
In the registered fund world, we spent much of the past year focused on complying with – and implementing – new, operationally complex rules covering derivatives, valuation and fund-of-fund investments, among others. This...more
In my view, it is now an essential part of the M&A investment thesis. Increasingly, we are seeing institutional investors align their portfolio companies towards better ESG compliance and performance, underlining that ESG is...more
On December 14, 2022, the SEC adopted amendments to Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and added related new disclosure requirements. Rule 10b5-1 provides an affirmative defense to insider trading liability...more
1/3/2023
/ Certifications ,
Cooling-Off Rule ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Good Faith ,
New Amendments ,
Regulation S-K ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
In response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February, the U.S. government announced sweeping sanctions against Russia. As the conflict nears the three-month mark, businesses around the...more