Securities

Expert Analysis

• Managing Financial Product Data In Antitrust Cases

  

  The data considerations required in antitrust cases involving financial products are different than those for tangible products when it comes to economic analyses for class certification, liability and damages, say George Korenko and Matthew Milner at Edgeworth Economics.

• Voting Records Support Concerns Over Proxy Firms' Influence

  

  Research indicates thousands of asset managers mostly vote in line with proxy advisers' recommendations and aren't always transparent about it, validating concerns over proxy firms' outsize influence on investment management and our capital markets, says professor Paul Rose at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

• Insider Trading Bill Would Clarify, Expand Years Of Case Law

  

  While still subject to Senate approval, the House's recent passage of the Insider Trading Prohibition Act is significant because it shows bipartisan approval for codifying — and potentially broadening — grounds for prosecuting insider trading established in case law, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

• Strategies To Maintain Privilege In Crisis Response Scenarios

  

  In several recent cases, courts have overridden claims that attorney-client privilege applies to communications with public relations firms in connection with litigation and to documents generated in internal investigations, but businesses can use several best practices to avoid the potential risk of waiving privilege, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• US Strengthened And Expanded Economic Sanctions In 2019

  

  Stateside regulation of economic sanctions continued at a breakneck pace this year, with new rules targeting Venezuela, Cuba, Turkey and Iran, expanded guidance from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and one of the most active enforcement years on record, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• Slack's Direct Listing Tests Limits Of Securities Act

  

  Amid an evolving initial public offering market, Slack Technologies’ recent direct listing and resulting shareholder litigation highlight tension between listing requirements and potentially dated Securities Act investor protections, say attorneys at Labaton Sucharow.

• How To Ward Off Nonclient Suits Over Lawyers' Speech

  

  Because lawyers are often sued by nonclients based on public statements they have made, lawyers should be trained to avoid potentially actionable statements when speaking and writing, and they should also understand the overarching defenses against such lawsuits, says Matthew O’Hara at Freeborn & Peters.

• State Protections For Vulnerable Investors Advance In 2019

  

  This year several states passed laws aiming to improve protections for seniors and other vulnerable investors by expanding report and hold laws to cover suspicious transactions, extending hold periods for investigations, and broadening the range of people who can be contacted in investigations, say Lawrence Fenster and Andrew Mount at Bressler Amery.

• Opinion

  Exit Of SEC's Jackson Would Create Wall Street Free-For-All

  

  An early departure of Commissioner Robert Jackson from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission without a replacement lined up would give the Republican-leaning regulator free rein to push rulemaking that allows Wall Street to operate unrestrained, says Shawn Sebastian of the Working Families Party and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund.

• What Is A 'Reasonably Useful Form' For Production Of ESI?

  

  While federal rules require production of electronically stored information in its native format or a "reasonably useful form," recent court rulings offer guidance on avoiding production of ESI in its native format when it would be unduly burdensome, say Matthew Hamilton and Donna Fisher at Pepper Hamilton.

• Key Takeaways From CFTC's Compliance Officer Guidance

  

  The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's newly issued guidance on chief compliance officer reporting raises important questions about materiality thresholds and enterprise-level compliance operations, says Steptoe & Johnson's Matt Kulkin, former director of the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight.

• 5 Tips For Maximizing Insurance Claims In A Hard Market

  

  As policyholders experience increases in premiums, reduced capacity and more restrictive terms in all lines of insurance coverage, many are turning to new strategies to increase claims recovery, says Micah Skidmore of Haynes and Boone.

• IPO Benefits And Challenges For Early-Stage Biotech Cos.

  

  While initial public offerings can provide early-stage biotech companies with market exposure and access to significant capital, they warrant careful consideration because they can also drain valuable time and resources, say Faith Charles and Paige Connelly of Thompson Hine.

• Bank Regulators' Proposals Won't Erase Madden Uncertainty

  

  While recently proposed rules from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency aim to clarify that a bank loan's interest rate doesn't change when it is sold or securitized, they're unlikely to fully resolve the ambiguity introduced by the Second Circuit’s controversial Madden decision, say attorneys at White & Case.

• And Now A Word From The Panel: It's Nothing Personal

  

  A recent ruling on personal jurisdiction from the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation makes clear that parties should not be able to utilize the MDL process as an end-run around well-established due process considerations, says Alan Rothman of Arnold & Porter.