Columbia Law School
Sky Blog
Good afternoon. Thank you for the kind introduction and the opportunity to speak to the Los Angeles County Bar Association today. Before I begin, let me issue the standard disclaimer that the views I share are my own and do
cybersecurity
The Board of Directors’ Duty of Oversight and Cybersecurity
Over the last several years, cyberattacks, including from foreign state actors, have affected thousands of companies and government agencies. Past corporate victims include Yahoo!, Home Depot, and LinkedIn. And the real world consequences of a cyberattack became vivid to the …
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses OFAC Ransomware Advisory Update
On September 21, 2021, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an Updated Advisory on Potential Sanctions Risks for Facilitating Ransomware Payments, which provides additional guidance for companies facing ransomware attacks, or processing ransomware …
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses SEC Case on Misleading Disclosure of Cybersecurity Incident
On August 16, 2021, the SEC charged Pearson plc with misleading investors and failing to maintain adequate disclosure controls and procedures in connection with a cybersecurity incident. According to the SEC’s order, Pearson learned in March 2019 about an intrusion …
Wachtell Lipton Discusses Important Supreme Court Business Cases Last Term and Next
The Supreme Court’s now-concluded October Term 2020 marked a slow return to normalcy following the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Court released only 56 signed opinions — just a handful more than the prior Term, and well below the …
O’Melveny & Myers Discusses the Legal Challenges of NFTs
Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are big news these days. After an NFT for a piece of digital art by the artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) sold for $69 million in March 2021―making it the third-most expensive artwork by a living …
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 …
Wachtell Lipton Discusses White-Collar and Regulatory Enforcement: What Mattered in 2020 and What to Expect in 2021
As we write this memorandum, a new administration is forming in Washington, with new leadership teams being nominated at DOJ, SEC, CFTC and other regulatory and law-enforcement agencies — thus prompting the question of what these changes may portend for …
Debevoise & Plimpton Expects More New York Regulatory Enforcement of Banking and Financial Services
As American businesses, including financial institutions, adjust their operations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the need to work closely with state regulators has become increasingly apparent. As anticipated, under the current federal administration we have seen state …
Skadden Discusses Cybersecurity and Incident Response During Coronavirus Pandemic
The spread of the novel coronavirus has upended Americans’ lives in a matter of months. While life outside has ground to a standstill in many regions of the country, much of corporate America is meeting the unique challenges posed by …
How Boards of Directors Should Protect Against the Rising Storm
Prosecutors, regulators, investors, and the media are increasingly holding directors and officers accountable, while special interest groups, plaintiffs’ lawyers, and activist hedge funds are constantly looking for their next targets.
This new reality requires directors to be aggressive in overseeing …
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Key Considerations for Fiscal-Year 2019 SEC Filings
As issuers prepare their Form 10-K and 20-F filings for fiscal year 2019, they should consider recent changes to Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) disclosure rules, trending disclosure topics and the implementation of critical audit matters disclosure in the audit …
Fried Frank Discusses Where Things Stand at Year-End 2019
Corporate Focus on the “Social Good”
Importantly, the Business Roundtable (an influential group of almost 200 CEOs of America’s most influential companies) issued a “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation,” which has intensified a developing focus on the social …
Evidence of Systemic Risk from Major Cybersecurity Breaches
In general economics, “asymmetric information” refers to information about a transaction in which one party knows more than another party, to the potential benefit of the former at the expense of the latter. An example often occurs when consumers and …
Commissioners Testify on SEC Oversight: Wall Street’s Cop on the Beat
Chairwoman Waters, Ranking Member McHenry and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today [September 24] about the work of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission or agency).[1]
Overview—The SEC’s
Gibson Dunn Offers 2019 Mid-Year Securities Enforcement Update
The first half of 2019 has seen a continuation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s emphasis on protecting the interests of Main Street investors. Chairman Clayton reiterated these themes in his testimony in May before the Financial Services and General …
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Key Considerations for Annual SEC Filings
As issuers prepare their Form 10‑K and 20‑F filings for fiscal year 2018, they should consider the guidance provided in some recent speeches from officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which highlight a number of considerations relating to …
Cleary Gottlieb Reviews 2018 Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Developments
In 2018, data privacy and cyber breaches made headlines throughout the year. Major companies continued to suffer data breaches, highlighting the risks and potential costs of cyber incidents across industries. At the same time, a growing and overlapping thicket of …
SEC Chair Discusses EDGAR-Hacking Enforcement Action
In August 2017, shortly after my arrival at the Commission, I was informed that an intrusion into the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (“EDGAR”) system took place in 2016. We immediately initiated a series of review and response
SEC Chair Talks Rulemaking Over the Past Year and the Road Ahead
For many, December is a time to reflect on the past year and to look forward to what the New Year may bring. I believe organizations also should mark milestones, take stock of what has been done and what needs