Securities

Expert Analysis

• Series

  Pursuing Wellness: Steps Toward A Supportive Firm Culture

  

  As an early advocate of the American Bar Association's year-old well-being pledge, we launched an integrated program to create and sustain a supportive workplace culture with initiatives focused on raising mental health awareness, embracing creativity and giving back to the community, says Casey Ryan at Reed Smith.

• White Collar Cases And Trends To Watch At High Court

  

  In the approaching U.S. Supreme Court term, white collar practitioners should follow Kelly v. United States for its potential to narrow criminal fraud law, along with three pending certiorari petitions, and the voting patterns of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, say Brook Dooley and Cody Gray at Keker Van Nest.

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  Pursuing Wellness: Mental Health Education As A Firm Priority

  

  Our firm drives a holistic concept of well-being through educational opportunities, such as a series of expert-led workshops intended to address mental health and substance abuse issues that we vowed to fight when we signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge one year ago, says Krista Logelin at Morgan Lewis.

• The New Frontier Of Cryptocurrency Collateral

  

  As the number of corporate borrowers transacting in cryptocurrency is likely to increase, this additional pool of value may be of interest to lenders, who should consider some administrative and legal questions as they weigh crypto collateral's costs and benefits, say Jerome McCluskey of Milbank, and Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, Sarah Olsen and Josh Rawlins of Gemini Trust.

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  Pursuing Wellness: A Firm's Work With Mental Health Experts

  

  Signing the American Bar Association's well-being pledge last year was a natural progression of our firm's commitment to employee wellness, which has included developing partnerships with professionals in the mental health space to provide customized programming to firm attorneys and staff, say Annette Sciallo and Mark Goldberg at Latham.

• Marriott Order Good News For Cybersecurity Class Action Bar

  

  A Maryland federal judge's recent decree ordering Marriott to release a crucial third-party report revealing key details about how a data breach occurred could have significant ramifications for plaintiffs filing class actions following breaches of customer data at other companies, says cybersecurity consultant John Reed Stark.

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  Pursuing Wellness: When A Firm Brings Counseling On Site

  

  One year ago, our firm signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge and embraced a commitment to providing on-site behavioral health resources, which has since become a key aspect of our well-being program, say Meg Meserole and Kimberly Merkel at Akin Gump.

• SEC's Broker Bar Stance Hinges On Penalties Vs. Remedies

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent decision holding that Financial Industry Regulatory Authority expulsions are remedial, not punitive, spells out how far a regulator can go in sanctioning securities misconduct in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Kokesh opinion, says Clinton Marrs of Marrs Griebel Law.

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  Pursuing Wellness: Inside A Firm Meditation Program

  

  After our firm signed the American Bar Association’s well-being pledge one year ago, we launched two key programs that included weekly meditation sessions and monthly on-site chair massages to help people address both the mental and physical aspects of working at a law firm, says Marci Eisenstein at Schiff Hardin.

• Third Point's FTC Fine Displays Antitrust Rule Quirk

  

  Although the Federal Trade Commission determined Third Point inadvertently missed Hart-Scott-Rodino Act filings associated with its investments in newly merged DowDuPont, the FTC's enforcement action underscores the need for attention to compliance with the antitrust law, even when the trigger is another company's transaction, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• Early Sampling Of Electronic Info Is Underutilized In Discovery

  

  The early and prompt provision of samples from all electronically stored information sources as a part of ESI protocol search methodology is consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and may allow for significant cost savings during discovery, says Zachary Caplan at Berger Montague.

• Crypto-Mining Pools, Chips May Prompt Antitrust Concerns

  

  Cryptocurrency-mining company Bitmain's reported plans for an initial public offering have thrust the influence of mining pools and application-specific integrated circuits on the competitive landscape into the spotlight, raising questions over whether they promote mining centralization, says Marc Martos-Vila at Econ One Research.

• To Defer Or Not To Defer: Kisor's Impact On Tax Controversies

  

  Three recent federal tax cases show how the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in Kisor v. Wilkie, substantially restricting agency deference, is affecting interpretation of the many regulations and guidance issued post-tax reform, say Andrew Roberson and Kevin Spencer at McDermott.

• SEC's Shareholder Proposal Change May Muddle 2020 Proxies

  

  Recent changes to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff's role as arbiter of shareholder proposals only add more complexity to the Rule 14a-8 process, which was already fraught with uncertainty for filers preparing to navigate the upcoming proxy season, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

• The Factors Courts Consider In Deposition Location Disputes

  

  In the absence of a federal rule governing deposition location, federal courts are frequently called on to resolve objections to out-of-state deposition notices. Recent decisions reveal what information is crucial to courts in making the determination, says Kevin O’Brien at Porter Wright.