Securities

Expert Analysis

• A Likely Tipping Point For Nonlawyer Ownership Of Law Firms

  

  The Arizona Supreme Court's recent decision to eliminate prohibitions on nonlawyer ownership of law firms may show that the organized bar's long-standing rhetoric that such rules are essential to protecting the legal profession's core values is overblown, say Anthony Sebok at Cardozo School of Law and Bradley Wendel at Cornell Law School.

• Practical Lessons From 2nd Circ. Lehman Bankruptcy Ruling

  

  The Second Circuit's recent decision in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy litigation provides guidance for market participants who structure or invest in complex finance transactions involving derivatives, as well as a useful perspective for creditors seeking to protect their rights in a bankruptcy proceeding, say Thomas Mitchell at Orrick and attorney Steven Fink.

• Bank Lessons From OCC's Stablecoin Custody Go-Ahead

  

  With the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently authorizing banks to hold stablecoin reserves, financial institutions should keep several compliance considerations in mind with respect to deposit insurance, anti-money laundering, risk management, liquidity, issuer identification and audit requirements, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

• Key Points From New Blockchain Legal Guidance

  

  Mark Dawkins and Jenny Arlington at Akin Gump analyze the Law Society and Tech London Advocates' recent guidance on blockchain, smart legal contracts, crypto assets and other advanced technologies, and explain why legal practitioners should familiarize themselves with it.

• Foreign Securities Class Actions 10 Years After Morrison

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank has had a sweeping impact on the application of the federal securities laws to transnational securities fraud, but it has not brought the predictability and consistency it promised and has exposed foreign issuers to greater U.S. class action liability, say attorneys at Cleary.

• A Road Map For Drafting Persuasive Discovery Motions

  

  Best practices that can help litigators write convincing discovery motions include thinking about the audience, addressing a few key questions, and leaving out boilerplate from supporting briefs, says Tom Connally at Hogan Lovells.

• Framing The Legacy Of The SEC Under Clayton

  

  Attorneys at Sidley analyze recent speeches from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton and Division of Enforcement Director Stephanie Avakian in light of the commission’s last four years of enforcement achievements, and with an eye toward the agency’s forward priorities.

• How Congress Can Depoliticize The Supreme Court

  

  Congress has multiple means to take the politics out of federal judicial nominations and restore the independence of the U.S. Supreme Court — three of which can be implemented without a constitutional amendment, says Franklin Amanat at DiCello Levitt.

• Competing Libor-Transition Proposals Create More Problems

  

  While the U.S., U.K. and EU have proposed legislation in anticipation of the approaching Libor end date, the multiplicity of their approaches gives rise to uncertainty for market participants rather than eliminating it, say Anne Beaumont at Friedman Kaplan and Janine Alexander and Audrey Favreau at Collyer Bristow.

• Opinion

  The Case For A Nonpolitical Federal Judiciary

  

  For the last 20 years, at the insistence of both parties, U.S. Supreme Court nominations have been fierce ideological battles — which is bad for the country and bad for the public's perception of the legitimacy of the court, say Judge Eric Moyé, Judge Craig Smith and Winston & Strawn partner Tom Melsheimer.

• Anthem-Cigna Merger Ruling Highlights Post-Deal Issues

  

  The Delaware Chancery Court's recent decision to halt the Anthem-Cigna merger on antitrust grounds is most notable for not holding Cigna liable for breaching its obligation to support the transaction, and underscores the vulnerability of merger-of-equals transactions to post-signing issues, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

• The Keys To A Better Privilege Logging Paradigm

  

  Current privilege logging practices to identify what information is being withheld from discovery often lead to costly disputes, so practitioners should adopt a system based on trust and good faith, similar to the presumptions embedded in the business judgment rule for corporate directors and officers, say Kevin Brady at Volkswagen and Charles Ragan and Ted Hiser at Redgrave.

• Opinion

  Pending Changes Pose Threat To SEC Whistleblower Program

  

  If the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approves changes to the Dodd-Frank Act whistleblower rules on Wednesday, it will weaken protections for tipsters and radically undermine a regime that has returned $750 million to investors and collected over $2.5 billion in sanctions, says Stephen Kohn of Kohn Kohn & Colapinto.

• White House Due Process Memo Could Reform Enforcement

  

  A little-noticed memo recently issued by the Trump administration in response to the pandemic, directing federal agencies to provide greater due process to individuals and companies under regulatory investigation, represents a long-overdue sea change in the way justice is carried out in enforcement proceedings, say Joan Meyer and Norman Bloch at Thompson Hine.

• What Shifting FCPA Enforcement Means For Financial Cos.

  

  In this brief video, Tom Firestone and Daniela Fonseca Puggina at Baker McKenzie analyze how Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement is placing greater emphasis on bribe recipients, and what this trend means for financial institutions and their know-your-customer policies and practices.