SOX (Generally)

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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that will address the question of whether or not a claimant alleging that his employer fired him in retaliation for whistleblowing must prove that the employer acted with retaliatory intent. The court’s consideration of the case has important implications for claimants under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s anti-retaliation provisions, because claimants could face significantly greater difficulty in establishing their claims if they must prove that the employer acted with subjective intent to retaliate. The case could also have important implications for retaliation claims under other federal whistleblower protection laws. The Court’s May 1, 2023, order agreeing to take up the case can be found here.Continue Reading Supreme Court To Consider Whether Whistleblower Must Show Retaliatory Intent

magglassThe Sarbanes Oxley Act was enacted nearly twelve years ago in the midst of profusion of corporate scandals. Despite the passage of time, the Act has remained controversial. In order to evaluate the Act’s impact, Harvard Law Professor John C. Coates and Harvard Business School Professor Suraj Srinivasan undertook to review over 120 studies of …

Strangely, the Judge Couldn’t Be Found Inside the Mailbox at the UPS Store: According to the February 12, 2009 Atlanta Constitution (here), Fulton County deputies have yet to serve suit papers filed on December 12, 2008 against a Fulton County Superior Court Judge, even though the deputies and the Judge all work in the…

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket When it passed the Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002, Congress’ primary focus was on the transparency and governance of publicly traded companies. But the Act has turned out to have a more pervasive influence, affecting not just public companies but also private companies and nonprofit entities as well. A June 18, 2007 report (here…

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation (or the "Paulson Committee" as the group has come to be known) is scheduled to release its recommendations later this week, on November 30. The Paulson Committee is concerned with the competitiveness of the U.S. securities exchanges in the global marketplace, and the perceived inability of the U.S exchanges…

A November 20, 2006 Wall Street Journal article entitled “Companies Discover It’s Hard to Reclaim Pay from Executives” (here, subscription required) details the difficulty that companies are having in their attempts to compel executives to return compensation they didn’t really earn because, as a result of later restatements, the company didn’t actually hit…

According to news reports (here), Alan Greenspan recently made public statements critical of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, apparently telling the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council on September 24, 2006 that the Act has become a “nightmare” that should be scrapped. Greenspan apparently told the audience that the SOX regulations are hampering business, discouraging risk taking,…

A continuing debate surrounding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been the extent to which the Act may be discouraging foreign companies from listing their shares on U. S. securities exchanges. (Prior D & O Diary post on the topic may be found here and here.) Enforcement activity against foreign issuers undoubtedly will influence the relative…