On March 15, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (the Act) into law as part of the $1.5 trillion fiscal 2022 omnibus spending package. The Act will create a mandatory...more
On Feb. 28, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) introduced proposed legislation[1] titled the Ocean Shipping Antitrust Enforcement Act (the Act), which would repeal 46 U.S.C. § 40307,[2] a statute conferring certain antitrust...more
On March 7, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Treasury Department published guidance on increased vigilance for potential Russian sanctions evasion attempts. The FinCEN Alert follows the...more
As noted in previous client alerts (including here), boardroom diversity continues to be an increasing focus of stakeholders ranging from legislators to institutional investors to retail stockholders. In recent years, their...more
On Dec. 15, 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) proposed Rule 240.9j-1 (the Rule), intended “to prevent fraud, manipulation, and deception in connection with effecting transactions in, or...more
In January, the New York State Assembly and Senate introduced identical bills seeking to impose broad environmental, social and governance (ESG) mandates on the global fashion industry. If passed, the Fashion Sustainability...more
This client alert provides an overview of recent key updates on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters from the leading proxy advisory firms and major institutional investors. We also address updated guidance by...more
1/28/2022
/ Board of Directors ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Glass Lewis ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ,
Proxy Season ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
2021 was a busy year for corporate governance matters, with new legislation passed early in the year and new enforcement priorities emerging under the Biden administration. Kramer Levin lawyers published numerous articles...more
1/6/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Caremark claim ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FinCEN ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Public Comment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Over the course of the year — and even dating back to his time on the campaign trail — President Biden and senior officials in his administration, including Department of Justice (DOJ) and Security and Exchange Commission...more
12/21/2021
/ Anti-Corruption ,
Biden Administration ,
Bribery ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corruption ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
White Collar Crimes
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Treasury Department announced last week an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to solicit public comment on a proposed rule that would address the...more
12/15/2021
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Banking Sector ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Popular ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Recordkeeping Requirements
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Treasury Department announced last week a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement the beneficial ownership reporting requirements set forth in the Corporate...more
On Nov. 23, the New York Court of Appeals held in a 6-1 ruling that an investment firm’s $140 million disgorgement payment to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was not a “penalt[y] imposed by law” under the firm’s...more
In her Oct. 28, 2021 keynote address at the American Bar Association’s 36th National Institute on White Collar Crime, new Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Lisa Monaco announced several policy changes to the Department of...more
In a recent speech at the Practising Law Institute’s annual SEC Speaks conference, Gurbir Grewal, the new director of the Division of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission), signaled...more
On Oct. 6, 2021, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco announced the creation of a Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative (the Initiative). According to the announcement, the Initiative combines the DOJ’s...more
On Oct. 13, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed amendments to its regulations (the Proposed Rule) that enhance the ability of employee benefit plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other environmental,...more
On Sept. 27, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the most recent legal challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) practice of using “no-deny” consent agreements to resolve civil...more
On Sept. 14, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) entered a cease-and-desist order against App Annie Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO, Bertrand Schmitt, after agreeing to settle securities fraud claims....more
Demonstrating its continued focus on cybersecurity enforcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced three new actions on Aug. 30 charging eight firms with maintaining deficient cybersecurity policies and...more
In a significant decision, a panel of the Second Circuit recently held that a French citizen who was charged with violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) in connection with the LIBOR scandal, but who lives in France and...more
As we have discussed in prior alerts, expanding boardroom diversity has been a recent focus for many regulators, issuers, shareholders and other stakeholders. To this end, in December 2020, Nasdaq Inc. proposed new rules that...more
On July 21, in S.E.C. v. Collector’s Coffee, Inc. et al.,[1] a New York federal court held that a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) whistleblower protection rule prohibiting actions to impede the...more
On July 9, 2021, New York City enacted a new biometric ordinance regulating how businesses handle biometric identifier information. The new law is the first of its kind in New York and requires commercial establishments...more
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision in TransUnion v. Ramirez that clarified the injury-in-fact plaintiffs must show to have standing to assert statutory privacy rights in federal court. This follows...more
7/14/2021
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
SCOTUS ,
Separation of Powers ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
TransUnion ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
On July 7, 2021, Colorado’s governor signed into law the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), which follows similar privacy laws enacted in California and Virginia and is consistent with an expanding national trend. ...more