Asset Management

Expert Analysis

• Timely Qualified Plan Adoption Still Tricky After SECURE Act

  

  The recently enacted Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act includes a helpful extension of the annual deadline to adopt a new qualified plan, but there is still complexity in documenting for the IRS when the plan was put in place, says Daniel Morgan at Blank Rome.

• Rebuttal

  AI Can't Accurately Predict Case Length And Cost — Yet

  

  A recent Law360 guest article argued that artificial intelligence can precisely estimate the length and cost of a new case, but several limitations will likely delay truly accurate predictions for years to come, says Andrew Russell at Shaw Keller.

• Opinion

  PE Investors Should Reject Life Tenure For General Partners

  

  Institutional investors in private equity and venture capital funds should push back against limited partnership agreements that make it impossible to remove a general partner for any reason, say Kenneth Witt and Marc Lieberman at Kutak Rock.

• Boardroom Hot Topics: ESG, Purpose And Stakeholders

  

  Public company boards of directors should recognize environmental, social and governance issues as a growing priority for investors, identify the purpose of their corporation, and consider focusing on a broader set of stakeholders, say Valeska Pederson Hintz and James O'Grady at Lowenstein Sandler.

• The 3 SECURE Act Issues Plan Sponsors Should Review First

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  There are several provisions of the recently enacted Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act that defined contribution plans should be thinking about now, even though many of the law’s big-ticket changes are not effective until 2021, say Casey Fleming and Hannah Demsien at Foley & Lardner.

• Lawyers Can Build Trust Through The Spoken Word

  

  As attorneys, we may prefer the precision of written communication, but a phone call or an in-person conversation builds trust by letting others see and hear our authentic selves, rather than something constructed or scripted, says mediator Sidney Kanazawa of ARC.

• FINRA's Changes To New-Issue Sales, Distribution Practices

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  Recently effective changes to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's initial equity public offering sales and distribution rules introduce new considerations for exempt investors, the types of securities offerings subject to the rules, and the types of investors broker-dealers can sell to, say Anna Pinedo and Ali Perry at Mayer Brown.

• Opinion

  Legal Prediction Is Demanding But Not Impossible

  

  The New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent decision in Balducci v. Cige incorrectly concluded that predicting the length and cost of a case is nearly impossible, and overlooked artificial intelligence's ability to do so, says Joseph Avery with Claudius Legal Intelligence.

• Trends In Recent FCPA And Cartel Cases Against Execs

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice has taken more white collar cases against executives to trial this winter, focusing on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and cartel allegations, and scoring noteworthy victories in a canned tuna price-fixing case and two rate-rigging cases, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

• 5 Executive Compensation Considerations For Proxy Season

  

  Companies preparing their 2020 proxy statements should keep several compensation plan and disclosure issues in mind on the heels of recent say-on-pay and executive remuneration policy updates from Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

• SEC Exam Priorities Highlight Flexible, Holistic Compliance

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently released exam priorities encourage firms to emphasize investor protection and consider compliance in light of evolving business and market demands, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

• Effective AML, Anti-Bribery Programs Hinge On Collaboration

  

  Amid increasing risk exposure from financial services companies' partners, clients and affiliates, opportunities exist to leverage processes across firms' anti-money laundering and anti-bribery and corruption programs, says Michelle Goodsir at K2 Intelligence.

• Understanding PE Employee Co-Investment Credit Facilities

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  Co-investment lines can offer the financing needed to make employee investment an attractive benefit, filling a growing demand for additional liquidity and flexibility at the upper levels of a private equity fund's corporate structure, say attorneys at Haynes and Boone.

• Malpractice Landscape Is Becoming Riskier For BigLaw

  

  A recent survey of lawyers’ professional liability insurers revealed an increase in malpractice claims against law firms, suggesting clients will demand more accountability in the coming decade, say Gerald Klein and Amy Nguyen at Klein & Wilson.

• Perspectives

  Book Review: A Lawyer Reflects On Defending Guilty People

  

  In her new book, "Guilty People," Abbe Smith successfully conveys that seeing ourselves in people who commit crime may be the first step to exacting change in our justice system, says U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa of the District of Arizona.