As I noted in a blog post at the time, in June the U.S. Supreme Court entered its opinion in the SEC v. Jerkesy case, striking down the SEC’s use of Administrative Law Judges in civil penalty action. In the following guest post, Gregory Markel, Sarah A. Fedner, and Gershon Akerman of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm take a detailed look at the case and consider its significance and implications. A version of this article previously was published in the Practical Law Forum. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their 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 the authors’ article.Continue Reading Guest Post: SEC Administrative Proceedings After SEC v. Jarkesy

Sarah Abrams

As I noted in a post at the time (here), last Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, striking down the SEC’s use of in-house courts in enforcement actions seeking monetary penalties. Then on Friday, the Court issued its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which the court wiped out the so-called Chevron doctrine, in which courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims, Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty Underwriters, takes a look at these two decisions and examines some of the decisions’ implications from a D&O insurance perspective. 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: Regulatory Coverage Impact on D&O Insurers Post-US Supreme Court Decisions in Jarkesy and Loper

The United States Supreme Court has held that that, in light of the Seventh Amendment’s right to a jury trial, the SEC must pursue enforcement actions seeking civil penalties in a jury trial proceeding in federal court rather than in an action before an administrative law judge. The Court’s 6-3 ruling could have significant consequences for the many SEC enforcement actions now pending in the agency’s administrative tribunals, as well as for the agency’s pursuit of future enforcement actions. The Court’s ruling could also have important implications for other federal agencies’ use of administrative tribunals as well. A copy of the Court’s June 27, 2024, opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy can be found here.Continue Reading Supreme Court Strikes Down SEC’s Use of Administrative Law Judges in Civil Penalty Actions