Securities Litigation & Regulation

08 Oct The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Disgorgement Powers After Liu: BWO Enters the Fray

Posted at 22:40h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Tyler Creekmore

In a significant development for securities enforcement, Brown White & Osborn recently argued a case before the Ninth Circuit that has profound implications for businesses on the West Coast. In SEC v. Sripetch, the Court was asked to answer the question of whether the Securities...

06 Dec Taking A Punch

Posted at 18:30h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

What do you get when you combine a celebrity boxing champ, a popular DJ and an executive who rents out exotic cars? If images of a lime green Lamborghini and diamond-encrusted platinum bling come to mind, you’re a bit off base, though no one would...

04 Dec He’s Baaaaaaaack .. Raymond J. Lucia Returns To Challenge SEC

Posted at 18:39h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

Raymond J. Lucia, who in 2017 challenged the constitutionality of the SEC’s process for appointing administrative law judges (“ALJs”), a challenge the Supreme Court ruled in his favor earlier this year, is back at it. On November 28, 2018, Lucia filed a second case against...

12 Jul Executive Order On Administrative Law Judges Not As Alarming In Context

Posted at 00:16h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

On July 10, 2018, President Trump issued an executive order exempting federal administrative law judges (“ALJs”) from the competitive service, or civil service system. This was in response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lucia v. SEC, where the court held that SEC ALJs...

25 Jun The Supreme Court’s Majority in Lucia Makes For Strange Bedfellows

Posted at 22:17h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lucia v. SEC hardly came as a surprise. Sure, it invalidated a decades-old process for appointing SEC administrative law judges (“ALJs”), a rare occurrence, the reverberations of which are sure to flow across the federal landscape. But, after the...

22 Jun The Supreme Court Resolves A Split In Circuits, Holding That SEC Administrative Law Judges Are Subject To The Appointments Clause

Posted at 21:04h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

After several years and many challenges, the Supreme Court has finally decided that Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) administrative law judges (“ALJs”) are “inferior officers” who exercise significant federal authority and therefore are required by the Appointments Clause of the US constitution to be appointed...

19 Dec The Coming Wave of SEC and CFTC Regulation of ICOs

Posted at 17:18h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

With the startling rise in the value of Bitcoin and the proliferation in the number of crypto- or digital currency initial coin offerings (“ICO’s”) -- more than 160 thus far in 2017 -- government regulators around the world are actively evaluating the risk and utility...

12 Dec Bitcoin Goes Mainstream

Posted at 21:25h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

Bitcoin. The very mention of the name conjures the tripartite faces of fear, greed and the unknown. To many it is an unfamiliar economic engine that produces both financial volatility and enormous riches in the Internet’s equivalent of the wild west. But what are the...

05 Dec SEC Abruptly Changes Position on ALJs

Posted at 18:28h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

The SEC last week abruptly changed its position on the status of its administrative law judges ("ALJs"). In a Supreme Court brief filed in the case of Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC conceded that its ALJs are indeed inferior officers requiring appointment...

06 Nov To Share or Not to Share: The Ever-Present Risk of Selective Waiver of Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product

Posted at 23:38h in Securities Litigation & Regulation by Ron Wood

Corporate entities that find themselves in litigation after a negative announcement or embarrassing event often conduct internal investigations to get to the root of the problem. Outside law firms, usually not the company’s regular counsel, typically conduct these investigations to ensure objectivity and avoid a...