On June 5, 2017, in an opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor for a unanimous court, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the five-year statute of limitations applies to claims for disgorgement imposed as a sanction for violation the federal securities laws. The Court rejected the SEC’s argument that the statute of limitations was not applicable to claims for disgorgement. The decision provides greater certainty about the scope of potential liability for parties facing SEC liability. The decision is also important in light of the other securities law statute of limitations case that remains pending on the Court’s docket. The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 5, 2017 opinion can be found here.
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Why Are There Fewer Public Companies and How Worried Should We Be About it?
There are fewer public companies in the U.S. than there were in the nineties. Understanding the reason for the decline in the number of public companies is important to understanding whether or not the decline is a cause for concern, as well for thinking about what if anything policymakers should about it. In an interesting May 2017 paper entitled “Looking Behind the Declining Number of Public Companies: An Analysis of U.S. Capital Markets” (here), EY takes a detailed look at the drop in the number of companies listed on U.S. exchanges and examines the causes. The paper’s analysis has a number of important implications for policymakers, for investors, and for all market observers. A version of the EY paper appeared in a May 18, 2017 post on the Harvard Law School Forum of Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation blog (here).
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Proposed Disclosure and Corporate Governance Reforms in the Financial Choice Act 2.0
In a post last week, I wrote about the proposed revised Financial Choice Act (H.R. 10) now pending before Congress and the potential impact that the bill could have on the SEC’s enforcement program. In this post, I address the potential impact that the bill’s provisions could have on public company disclosure requirements and corporate governance. If the bill’s provisions are enacted into law, the measures could significantly alter or eliminate many of the Dodd-Frank Act’s disclosure and corporate governance requirements.
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Financial Choice Act 2.0 Proposes Significant Changes to the SEC’s Enforcement Authority
One of the Trump administration’s high profile initiatives is the review and rollback of many of the Dodd-Frank Act’s features. Consistent with these efforts, an updated version of a bill that would undo many of the Act’s provisions is now making its way through Congress. The Financial Choice Act (H.B. 10) was introduced in April by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) Because Hensarling introduced a similar bill with the same name during the last Congressional session, the recently introduced bill is referred to as Financial Choice Act 2.0. The bill, which has already passed through the House Financial Services Committee, addresses a number of high profile issues affecting the regulation of the financial system. The systemic issues are attracting all of the headlines. Other features of the bill are attracting less notice. Of particular interest here, the bill introduces a number of changes to the SEC’s enforcement authority. As Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee commented in congressional hearing testimony, these changes, if enacted, would “hobble the SEC’s enforcement program,” and the “cumulative effect” would be “devastating.”
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U.S. Securities Enforcement Authorities’ Extraterritorial Reach Under Morrison, Dodd-Frank Act
Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, U.S. courts held that the U.S. securities laws could be applied extraterritorially if there was sufficient fraudulent conduct or were sufficient effects from that conduct in the U.S. In Morrison the Supreme Court rejected this “conduct or effects” test, ruling that the U.S. securities laws apply to allegedly fraudulent transactions, not to alleged fraudulent conduct or its effects, and further that the securities laws apply only to domestic transactions. However, within days after the Morrison decision, the U.S. Congress, as part of its enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act, purported to provide the SEC and the U.S. DOJ “jurisdiction” to pursue enforcement actions based not on transactions in the U.S., but rather based on conduct or its effects in the U.S.
Despite the passage of time, no court reached the question of how to interpret and apply this Dodd-Frank provision in light of the Morrison decision – until now. In a detailed March 28, 2017 decision (here), District of Utah Judge Jill N. Parrish held, notwithstanding Morrison and in reliance on the Dodd-Frank Act provision, that the SEC may bring an enforcement action based on transactions outside the U.S. and involving non-U.S. residents if there was sufficient conduct in the U.S. The ruling potentially has important implications for U.S. regulatory authorities’ reach for securities enforcement actions involving foreign actors or non-U.S. transactions.
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Guest Post: President Trump, Let’s Strengthen the SEC
Among the many concerns in the early days of the new Presidency is the question of what we can expect from the SEC in the new administration. In the following guest post, Blair Nicholas and David Kaplan of the Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman law firm advocate that the SEC take an aggressive approach to securities enforcement, and they have a specific proposal to advance that approach. A version of this article previously appeared in the National Law Journal. I would like to thank Blair and David for their willingness to publish their article 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 Blair and David’s guest post.
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More About Litigation Reform Bylaws: Will “No Pay” Provisions Succeed Where Forum Selection Bylaws Have Failed?
In recent years, we approached the point where nearly every M&A transaction attracted one or more merger objection lawsuit, which all too often was resolved through a “disclosure only settlement” in which the defendant company agreed to make supplemental deal document disclosures and to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees, in exchange for a comprehensive release for the defendants. However, the courts in Delaware, the state where the majority of these cases were filed, have recently shown – in a series of rulings culminating with the Trulia decision last January — their unwillingness to approve these kinds of disclosure -only settlements where there is no material benefit for the company or its shareholders.
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Guest Post: Supreme Court to Review Whether Statute of Limitations Applies to SEC Disgorgement Claims
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in two cases involving the limitations periods under the federal securities laws. One case, as I noted in a post earlier this week, will address the question of whether or not the filing of a securities class action tolls the Securities Act’s statue of repose. The second case, Kokesh v. Securities and Exchange Commission (about which refer here), involves the question of whether or not the five-year statute of limitations applicable to SEC enforcement actions seeking civil penalties applies to disgorgement claims. In the following guest post, attorneys from the Paul Weiss law firm take a look at the case and the issues it presents, as well as its potential implications. I would like to thank the Paul Weiss attorneys for their willingness to publish their 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 Paul Weiss attorneys’ guest post.
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Guest Post: The Nuts & Bolts of SEC Investigations & Enforcement
The SEC is the primary regulatory body charged with the enforcement of the U.S. securities laws. Most insurance and legal professionals are well-aware of the agency and familiar with its regulatory role. But in an era that has been (at least up until now) characterized by heightened enforcement activity, many of those professionals may be unfamiliar with the agency’s investigative and enforcement process and protocols. In the following guest post, Ted Carleton and Tammy Yuen of the Skarzynski Black law firm and John Sikora of the Latham & Watkins law firm provides a basic outline of the SEC’s investigative and enforcement processes, reviews some recurring D&O insurance coverage issues arising from SEC investigations and enforcement actions, highlights some of the current issues at the agency, and take a look ahead at what the change in administration may mean. I would like to thank Ted, Tammy, and John for their willingness to publish their 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 Ted, Tammy and John’s guest post.
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Guest Post: Constitutionality of SEC’s ALJs Headed to Supreme Court?
One of the recurring questions in the securities regulatory enforcement arena has been the question of whether or not the Securities and Exchange Commission’s use of administrative law judges violates the U.S. Constitution. As discussed in the following guest post from Sarah A. Good and Laura C. Hurtado of the Pillsbury law firm, the Tenth Circuit, in direct conflict with a prior decision from the D.C. Circuit, recently held that the SEC’s appointment of administrative law judge’s violates the constitution. The circuit split suggests that this issue may be on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I would like to thank Sarah and Laura 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 site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah and Laura’s guest post.
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