On March 3, 2020, the US Supreme Court heard oral argument on whether the SEC has the authority to obtain disgorgement of “ill-gotten gains” in federal court for securities law violations. During the oral argument, in their questioning, the Justices frequently referred back to district courts’ inherent authority to enter…

Welcome to the first of our series of year-end analyses of the year in securities regulation and enforcement. First, we will consider the past year “by the numbers,” the statistics that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or more specifically, its component Divisions and Offices, release annually. Later parts of…

View presentation At the recent roundtable discussion, “SEC Regulatory and Enforcement Trends: How to Prepare for the SEC in 2020,” held at the Baker McKenzie Chicago office, our North America Financial Regulation & Enforcement team talked about what to expect from the Staff in 2020. Drawing from their collective SEC regulatory…

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Enforcement recently issued its 2019 Annual Report (ENF Annual Report), which you can read in full here. Of course, the headline is always how many cases did the Enforcement Staff bring and how much money did they collect and distribute and,…

On November 1st, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on whether the SEC has the authority to obtain disgorgement of “ill-gotten gains” in federal court for securities law violations.  The SEC historically has been successful in obtaining monetary relief from defendants through disgorgement, which the SEC has asserted…

The Division of Investment Management recently issued guidance on the obligation of investment advisers to disclose financial conflicts of interest in the form of Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Disclosure of Certain Financial Conflicts Related to Investment Adviser Compensation (the “Guidance”).  The Guidance substantiates (and to some degree legitimizes) the positions…