Columbia Law School
Sky Blog
Alexander I. Platt
What is the SEC Hiding?
Under Chair Gary Gensler, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been on a transparency rampage – proposing extensive new disclosure obligations on public companies, activist investors, private funds, and (maybe soon) so-called “unicorn” startups. …
The Whistleblower Industrial Complex
How do a few dozen SEC and CFTC staffers sift through the avalanche of tips submitted under Dodd-Frank whistleblower “bounty” programs to determine which ones to investigate?
The answer: They don’t.
Using new data obtained from both agencies under the …
Legal Guardrails for a Unicorn Crackdown
The SEC is undertaking an historic effort to redraw the boundary between public and private companies. After years of watching – and sometimes encouraging – the explosive growth in less tightly regulated private markets and the proliferation of so-called “unicorns,” …
Unicorniphobia
Once upon a time, a successful startup that reached a certain maturity would “go public” – selling securities to ordinary investors, perhaps listing on a national stock exchange, and taking on the privileges and obligations of a public company under …
Beyond “Going Dark:” The SEC’s 13F Proposal and Hedge Fund Activism
This past summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed eliminating quarterly disclosures for 90 percent of institutional investment managers by raising the reporting threshold under Section 13F of the Exchange Act from $100 million to $3.5 billion. The proposal …
The SEC and “Piggyback” Securities Litigation
Leading securities regulation scholars have repeatedly called for legislatively expanding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) control over private securities litigation.[1] These proposals grow out of profound doubts about the private securities class action regime and frustration with the …