Securities

Expert Analysis

• 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.

• Chancery Ruling Offers Takeaways On Conflicts In M&A Sales

  

  The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in Rudd v. Brown — a challenge to Outerwall's $1.6 billion sale to Apollo — provides valuable insight in the context of conflicts of interest and director and officer fiduciary duties during M&A sales processes completed amid threats of activist-driven proxy contests, says Sawyer Duncan at King & Spalding.

• Law Firm Hiring Considerations In A COVID-19 Economy

  

  Financially robust law firms are entering the recruiting market aggressively knowing that dislocations like the COVID-19 crisis present rare competitive opportunities, and firms that remain on the sidelines when it comes to strategic hiring will be especially vulnerable to having their best talent poached, says Brian Burlant at Major Lindsey.

• Self-Disclosure Trends In FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy

  

  A review of 41 actions undertaken since the U.S. Department Justice's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act corporate enforcement policy was introduced four years ago reveals that the DOJ and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission consistently reward timely self-disclosure and full cooperation, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• Hurdles Ahead For Stock Exchange Direct Listings

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent approval of primary direct listings at the New York Stock Exchange suggests that companies wishing to bypass initial public offerings may soon have that option, but not without a fight over investor protection and liability concerns, say attorneys at Cleary.