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Sarah Abrams

In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty,, reviews a recent lawsuit challenging on constitutional grounds the SEC’s accredited investor requirements and considers the lawsuit’s potential implications. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post 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 Sarah’s article. Continue Reading Guest Post: You’ve Got to Fight for Your Right to Invest

The idea that companies might be able to avoid securities class action litigation through the adoption of bylaws requiring securities law claims to be submitted to arbitration has been around for years.

Traditionally, the SEC has opposed these types of bylaw provisions. However, in an interesting development, on September 17, 2025, the Commission, in a new policy statement approved by a 3-1 vote along party lines, announced that the decision whether or not to “accelerate the effectiveness of a registration statement” will “not be affected” by the presence of provision requiring the arbitration of investor claims arising under the federal securities laws.

This development suggests that in the future IPO investors could find themselves compelled to arbitrate securities law claims rather than being able to file a securities class action, although, as noted below, there is a lot more that is yet to be told on these issues.Continue Reading SEC Revises Policy on Arbitration Provisions in IPO Companies’ Bylaws

Sarah Abrams

In a social media post earlier this week, President Trump proposed eliminating quarterly reporting for public companies. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, takes a look at the President’s proposal and considers its prospects and potential implications. I would like to thank…

Form PF (here) is a reporting form that requires private fund advisers to report regulatory assets under management to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). On February 8, 2024, the SEC and the CFTC announced amendments to the Form PF disclosure requirements (as reflected here and here). In the following guest post, Geoffrey Fehling, Scott Kimpel, and Evan M. Holober of the Hunton Andrews Kurth law firm review the new disclosure requirements and consider the potential liability exposures and possible insurance implications. A version of this article previously was published as a Hunton Andrews Kurth client alert (here). I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. 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 a guest post. Here is the authors’ article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Insurance Implications of SEC and CFTC’s New Form PF Requirements

Sarah Abrams

In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Professional Liability Claims at Bowhead Specialty, discusses the updated compliance rules for Private Equity Firms and Hedge Funds, which the SEC released on August 23, 2023. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her 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 Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: New SEC PE and Hedge Fund Disclosure Rules Winners? The Lawyers

On May 18, 2022, the Fifth Circuit held in Jarkesy v. SEC (here), that the agency’s use its in-house Administrative Law Judges, as opposed to its filing of an enforcement action in federal court, is unconstitutional. In the following guest post, Gregory A. Markel, Vincent A. Sama, Daphne Morduchowitz, Giovanna A. Ferrari, and Matthew C. Catalano of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm review the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, and discuss its implications. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. 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 a guest post. Here is the authors’ article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: SEC’s In-House Adjudication Deemed Unconstitutional by Fifth Circuit

Travis Knobbe

Sarah Abrams

According to the authors of the following article, Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff’s December 2020 decision in the Nine West LBO Securities Litigation could have important implications for the structure of LBO deals and the due diligence conducted in connection with the transaction, particularly in light of the current economic conditions. The article was written by Travis A. Knobbe, Partner at Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP and Sarah Abrams, Head of Professional Liability Claims at Bowhead Specialty Underwriters. I would like to thank Travis and Sarah for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. 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 a guest post. Here is the authors’ article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Lessons from Nine West: Avoiding “Reckless” Leveraged Buy-Out Risks  

In what is the latest step in what the Wall Street Journal has called “SEC Chairman Gensler’s wider push to rein in Wall Street through tougher regulation,” the SEC has approved, by a 3-1 vote, new proposed disclosure requirements and investor protections in connection with SPAC IPOs and de-SPAC transactions. The overall effect of the proposed new regulations, if implemented in a form similar to the proposal, would be to make the SPAC-related disclosure requirements more like those applicable to traditional IPOs. The proposed rules could have a sweeping impact not just on the SPAC IPO marketplace, but also on the marketplace for de-SPAC transactions, at a time when over 600 SPACs are currently searching for merger targets.

The SEC’s March 20, 2022 press release about the proposed new rules can be found here. The Commission’s 372-page proposal can be found here. The Commission’s short fact sheet about the proposed new rules can be found here. Cydney Posner’s detailed analysis of the proposal on the Cooley law firm’s PubCo blog can be found here.
Continue Reading SEC Proposed New SPAC-Related Disclosure Rules and Investor Protections

As I noted at the time, earlier this year SEC Chair Gary Gensler spoke publicly about the need for revisions to Rule 10b5-1, the regulatory provision that allows corporate executives, subject to certain requirements, to trade in their holdings of their companies’ securities. Rule 10b5-1 has long been criticized because of perceived abuses. On December 15, 2021, the SEC released proposed revisions to the Rule. Among other things, the proposed revisions strengthen the requirements to access the affirmative defenses afforded under the Rule, and also enhance disclosure requirements for companies whose executives enter into trading plans pursuant to the Rule. The proposed changes are subject to a 45-day comment period after the proposed amendments are published in the Federal Register.
Continue Reading SEC Proposes Amendments to Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan Provisions

As I have noted on this site, the SEC has in recent months filed SPAC-related enforcement actions, including the action filed in July 2021 against Stable Road Acquisition Corporation (discussed here), and the Y, 2021 action filed against Nikola Motors founder Chad Milton (discussed here). These matters were not, however, the first SPAC-related SEC enforcement actions; there have been others previously, including the September 2020 SPAC-related enforcement action against music streaming company Akazoo, S.A. In something of a milestone regarding SPAC-related actions, on October 27, 2021, the SEC announced that it had reached a settlement of the Akazoo enforcement action. The SEC’s October 27, 2021 press release about the settlement can be found here. The October 27, 2021 Agreed Final Judgment in the Enforcement Action can be found here.
Continue Reading SEC Enters Settlement in SPAC-Related Enforcement Action Against Akazoo