Columbia Law School
Sky Blog
Good morning to you all and thank you Ed [Bernard]. It is always a pleasure to welcome the hard working volunteers of AMAC back to the Commission. I also want to thank Sarah ten Siethoff and the staff of the
Securities Regulation
Latham & Watkins Discusses Whether NFTs Are Securities
As the current crypto boom has progressed, it seemed Decentralized Finance (DeFi) had cemented its position as the dominant new narrative of this cycle. This view is supported by the tens of billions of dollars that have flowed into DeFi …
Cooley Discusses SEC’s Regulation Fair Disclosure Charges Against AT&T
The SEC recently brought charges against AT&T and three mid-level executives for selectively providing information to Wall Street analysts in alleged violation of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD). According to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, …
Acting Chair Lee Speaks on Meeting Investor Demand for Climate and ESG Information at the SEC
Thank you, John [Podesta], and thanks to the whole team here at the Center for American Progress, for hosting me today. I’ve had the honor of serving as Acting Chair of the SEC for nearly two months now, and I
Wachtell Lipton on Whether the SEC Is Pushing the Boundaries of Regulation FD
On March 5, the SEC brought an enforcement action charging a public company and three of its investor relations personnel with violations of Regulation FD, alleging that the company’s IR personnel had fed non-public information to sell-side research analysts in …
Simpson Thacher Discusses SEC Framework for Use of Derivatives by Regulated Funds
In a widely anticipated action that was years in the making, the SEC adopted Rule 18f-4 under the 1940 Act prior to the conclusion of former Chair Jay Clayton’s tenure. The rule overhauls the regulatory framework for the use of …
Kirkland & Ellis Discusses ESG and Climate Regulatory Developments Affecting Private Equity
In the second half of 2020, demand for ESG-focused investments continued to accelerate, and data showing the outperformance of those investments during the COVID-19 pandemic has set the stage for robust demand to continue in 2021. In his recent letter …
Toward a Better Coordinated Regulatory Response to Cryptoassets
On Monday, January 8, 2021, Tesla announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.[1] This purchase coincided with a dramatic increase in the price of the cryptoasset, which …
Skadden Discusses Trends in Securities Class Action Filings
Despite unprecedented disruptions to the court system from the COVID-19 pandemic, plaintiffs continued to bring securities class actions at elevated levels in 2020 — a sign that filings will remain high in the year ahead. Based on data from Cornerstone …
Davis Polk Discusses New SEC Climate and ESG Enforcement Task Force
On March 4, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a newly created Climate and ESG Task Force in the Division of Enforcement. The Climate and ESG Task Force will work closely with other areas of the SEC as part of …
Commissioners Discuss SEC’s Enhanced Climate-Change Efforts
Over the past two weeks, we and the public have seen a steady flow of SEC “climate” statements and press releases.[1] Our Divisions of Corporation Finance, Examinations, and Enforcement all have announced climate- or ESG-related initiatives. What does this
Securities Regulation and Class Warfare
In a new article, I examine the regulatory goals of creating “fair, orderly, and efficient” securities markets in light of the recent issues involving trading in the shares of GameStop Corp. (GME) through the broker-dealer firm Robinhood Financial LLC. The …
What Do the Data Reveal About (the Absence of Black) Financial Regulators?
As has been remarked many times, yet still never enough, Black history is America’s history – and if anything, financial regulation proves the point. When calamity hits the stock market, Black people feel it too, if not always in terms …
Davis Polk Discusses SEC No-Action Statement on Custody of Digital Asset Securities
A recent SEC conditional no-action position (the “No-Action Statement”) has further opened the regulatory door to trading of digital asset securities (“DAS”), by allowing certain limited purpose DAS-only broker-dealers to maintain custody of these securities on …
Private Company Lies
Rule 10b-5, the federal antifraud catch-all, applies to both public and private company securities. Yet the voluminous case law, and the related scholarly literature, has focused primarily on public corporations and markets.
This state of the world sufficed for …
Gibson Dunn Offers 2020 Year-End Securities Litigation Update
Notwithstanding the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and unprecedented changes in daily life and the economy, the second half of 2020 marched on to the steady drumbeat of securities-related lawsuits we have observed in recent years, including securities class and stockholder …
Shareholder Monitoring and Discretionary Disclosure
Regulation Fair Disclosure (“Reg FD”) is commonly believed to prohibit managers from disclosing information about their firm to select shareholders. But managers are in fact allowed to do so in several circumstances. Specifically, Reg FD exempts communications to shareholders who …
King & Spalding Discusses Takeaways from GameStop
The recent meteoric rise (and subsequent fall) of GameStop, AMC Theaters and a host of other “meme stocks” has prompted hedge funds, investment bankers, regulators and public company executives to critically re-examine their preparedness for extraordinary market volatility.
The meme …
King & Spalding Discusses SEC’s Potential Focus During Biden Administration
For the next several weeks and months, intense focus will be trained on determining the priorities of the Biden administration. We believe that at the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the new administration will ramp up examinations and investigations of …
The Duty to Disclose Inside Information: The Subtle Relationships Within the European Market Abuse Regulation
In our recent paper we discuss the European regime governing the disclosure of inside information. In particular, we try to find an answer to the question of which duties of the disclosure regime have been violated in two situations: where …