Sky Blog
Editors Note: The author, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz argued the Morrison case for the defendants in the Supreme Court.
Just as it extinguished class-action litigation tourism under the Securities Exchange Act three years ago in Morrison …
Commissioner Walter delivered the below remarks on March 24, 2013 to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Forum (via videoconference)
Good morning. Thank you, Greg [ASIC Chairman Greg Medcraft] for that kind introduction.
It is a real pleasure to be …
Noting the increasingly global nature of financial markets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted Rule 15a-6 nearly twenty four years ago to facilitate limited access by foreign broker-dealers to customers in the United States. During the years since …
Venture capitalists (VCs) play a significant role in the financing of high-risk, technology-based business ventures. VC exits usually take one of three forms: an initial public offering (IPO) of a portfolio company’s shares, followed by the sale of the VC’s …
The imbalance in the supply and demand of venture capital of the past few years has led parties to look for new escape routes from the industry. There is the ‘survival of the fittest’ evidence that the number of active …
Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directly addressed the application of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Regulation FD) to corporate use of social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. In a Report of Investigation—a format used by the SEC to …
Traditionally, the view of the US, whether in business or academia, has been that it was a place for weak private enforcement and stronger public enforcement. However, when compared with the level of public enforcement in the European Member States, …
This week, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to respond to a petition I co-authored with my colleagues John Coffee, Ronald Gilson and …
Increasingly, companies are using social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms, to engage with clients, customers, employees, shareholders and other key constituents. Promising a fast and low-cost means of disseminating information, social media also offers the potential …
Virtually all brokerage firms’ customer agreements require arbitration of disputes in the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) forum. FINRA regulates the contents of these predispute arbitration agreements (PDAAs) and prohibits broker-dealers from requiring customers to give up the right to …
On February 21, United States District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff, federal prosecutor Reed Brodsky, and defense attorney Gary Naftalis, came together to discuss the Gupta insider trading case with Columbia Law School students in a seminar called Corporations in …
Although the volume of private securities class action filings has dropped recently, these lawsuits remain both a significant worry for issuers, investment banks, auditing firms and other potential defendants, and an arguably useful supplement to governmental enforcement of securities antifraud …
If nothing else, the JOBS Act has focused more attention on the “metaphysics” of securities offerings. Even those who are not securities geeks might readily acknowledge that at some point in our recent past, there were some characteristics typically associated …
A divided Supreme Court ruled on February 27th that proof of materiality is not a prerequisite to certification of a Rule 10b-5 securities fraud class action. Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, No. 11-1085 (Feb. 27, …
My new Essay Should Angel-Backed Start-ups Reject Venture Capital? challenges the conventional wisdom that venture capital is a necessary – and even desirable – source of financing for all start-ups. In particular, this Essay argues that some start-ups that attract …
The following post is based on a speech Chairman Walter gave at the American University School of Law in Washington D.C. on February 19, 2013
Thank you Dean Grossman. And thank you to the Washington College of Law for hosting …
The year 2013 marks the forty-fifth anniversary of Escott v. BarChris Construction Corp., the seminal decision on the due diligence defense under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933. Nearly a half century after it was decided, BarChris…
On February 28, I submitted a letter on Money Market Fund Reform to the Financial Stability Oversight Council in response to their November 2012 request for comments on a number of alternative proposals. I endorse the so-called “Minimum Balance at …