November 2017

John Reed Stark

 As I noted in a recent post (here), the business pages these days are full of headlines about Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Among many issues swirling around ICOs one is the question of how the offerings fit within the overall legal and regulatory framework. In the following guest post, John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, takes a detailed look at ICOs with a particular focus on securities regulation. A prior version of this article previously appeared on Securities Docket. I would like to thank John for his willingness to allow me to publish his article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: The SEC and ICOs: Winter is Coming

A recurring issue in securities cases involves the question of when plaintiffs may rely on the presumption of reliance under the fraud on the market doctrine. To invoke the presumption plaintiffs must show that the defendant company’s securities trade on an efficient market, which in turn raises the question of what the plaintiffs must show in order to demonstrate market efficiency. In the following guest post, attorneys from the Paul Weiss law firm review a recent Second Circuit decision on this issue, Waggoner v. Barclays PLC (here). I would like to thank the attorneys from the Paul Weiss law firm for allowing me to publish this article as a guest post. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the Paul Weiss attorneys’ guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Second Circuit: Price Impact Evidence Not Always Necessary to Establish Market Efficiency

Uzbekistan (highlighted)

There is no private right of action under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), but plaintiff shareholders nevertheless frequently file follow-on civil actions in the wake of FCPA allegations against a company. Are these follow-on civil actions just an end run around the FCPA’s lack of a private right of action? That is the question a district court addressed in ruling on a motion to dismiss in a securities class action lawsuit filed against VEON (formerly known as Vimpelcom). In a September 19, 2017 order (here), Southern District of New York Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. held that the alleged misrepresentations on which the plaintiff sought to rely were “sufficiently distinct to avoid any potential concern that Plaintiffs are seeking to enforce the FCPA by [their] securities fraud action.” A November 8, 2017 memo from the Shearman & Sterling law firm about the ruling can be found here.
Continue Reading Is a Follow-On Lawsuit an End-Run Around the Absence of an FCPA Private Right of Action?

Chris Graham
Shelly Hall

In prior posts (most recently here) I have reviewed cases in which courts considered the question of insurance coverage for a bank’s obligation to repay allegedly improper overdraft fees.  The following guest post discusses a recent overdraft fee coverage case from the Seventh Circuit. BancorpSouth v. Federal Insurance Co. (the opinion can be found here). In this guest post, Chris Graham, a founding partner of Jones Lemon Graham LLP, and Shelly Hall, an attorney at the firm and business law adjunct professor, provide an overview of the Seventh Circuit case and also provides a chronology of other overdraft fee coverage cases.  A prior version of this article previously appeared on the law firm’s website (here). I would like to thank Chris and Shelly for their willingness to allow me to publish their article as a guest post. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit an article. Here is Chris and Shelly’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Fee Exclusion Precludes Coverage with No Allowance for Defense Costs

Anyone who reads the business pages these days has to be aware that there has been a surge of interest and activity involving cryptocurrencies, and in particular involving initial coin offerings (“ICOs”). In third quarter 2017 alone, 105 ICOs raised over $1.3 billion. This level of activity has in turn attracted regulatory scrutiny and even enforcement activity. In addition, there is now a securities class action lawsuit pending in connection with an ICO earlier this year, as discussed in detail below. As problems have emerged, investors, regulators, and others understandably have become wary of ICOs. However, because of the opportunities involved, ICOs are likely to continue, and for that reason it remains important to try to understand the promise they represent.
Continue Reading Cryptocurrencies and ICOs: Problems and Promise