Corporate Compliance

U.S. Lawmaker Suggests Special Counsel Probe of Wall Street Operations

At least one congressional lawmaker is calling for the appointment of a special counsel to probe Wall Street’s operations, as a global financial crisis apparently sparked by the U.S. mortgage meltdown continued today. As stock prices plummeted again worldwide today and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee began hearings…

Oct 6, 2008 7:25 PM CDT

Silver Lining to US Financial Storm: New Law Practice Arena

Continuing economic turmoil in the U.S. and internationally is prompting a number of major law firms to form special multidisciplinary practice groups to help clients deal with financial crises. In the process, some are creating new Internet resources that also may be of interest to other practitioners. In addition to…

Sep 30, 2008 4:16 PM CDT

Shareholder Suits in Uphill Battle Due to Current Financial Crisis

Despite predictions that the current U.S. economic crisis will bring more business to a number of lawyers, it is also likely to mean more work and less pay for others. Among those for whom the United States financial situation is creating an uphill battle is plaintiffs lawyers in shareholder suits,…

Sep 29, 2008 9:27 PM CDT

Feds Seize & Sell WaMu; Biggest Bank Failure in US History

Moving fast in the midst of an extraordinarily troubled U.S. economy, federal regulators seized—and sold—the troubled Washington Mutual bank last night. “Regulators simultaneously brokered an emergency sale of virtually all of Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest savings and loan, to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion, averting another potentially huge taxpayer…

Sep 26, 2008 7:28 PM CDT

US Financial Crisis Sparks Harsh Criticism of Regulatory Efforts

As officials in the Bush administration put on a full-court press this week to persuade Congress to enact emergency financial rescue legislation at a price tag that reportedly exceeds the cost of the Iraq war, the situation has sparked a firestorm of criticism concerning regulatory efforts, past and present. A…

Sep 25, 2008 10:00 PM CDT

More Regulation Likely Will Mean More Legal Work

With the federal government apparently on the verge of a major regulatory overhaul of the nation’s financial institutions, as part of an effort to prevent an economic debacle, the upsurge in oversight could well mean more work for lawyers. A $700 billion government bailout of struggling banks and Wall Street…

Sep 24, 2008 5:56 PM CDT

SEC’s Chief was MIA as US Markets Swooned, Some Say

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were the men of the hour last week, stepping in with a viable emergency plan as the U.S. economy appeared to be on the verge of a massive meltdown following a year of ongoing bad news. But where was…

Sep 22, 2008 6:35 PM CDT

As Banks Reel, Regulation is Suddenly a Hot Topic

It has been less than a decade since the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, and it is now becoming increasingly clear why we may have needed it. Enacted after banks failed in the Great Depression because of reckless investment in nontraditional areas, it restricted commercial banks from the kind of lending…

Sep 18, 2008 6:34 PM CDT

Will Misdated Report About United Airlines Bring Legal Consequences?

Updated: A report yesterday that United Airlines had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy sent the company’s stock plunging from over $12 to less than $3, in under an hour, before the erroneous news was corrected and the share price largely recovered. But it’s unclear whether there will be any legal…

Sep 9, 2008 4:25 PM CDT

SOX Protections for Whistle-Blowers Don’t Go as Far as Drafter Intended

Some corporate whistle-blowers who cooperate in fraud investigations are being rejected for protection from retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act because they work for a corporate subsidiary. The Department of Labor contends the law covers only publicly traded corporations—and not necessarily their corporate subsidiaries, the Wall Street Journal reports. University of…

Sep 4, 2008 4:02 PM CDT

Off-Label Drugs Will Be Next Enforcement Focus, Law Prof Predicts

Every year, when Dallas attorney Steve Kardell kicks off the corporate compliance and governance class he teaches at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, he starts by predicting the subject of the next wave of company scandals. Last year, he pointed to subprime lending. The year before, it was…

Aug 27, 2008 3:39 PM CDT

New Role in Managing Law Firm Risk Exposure: the CRO

Once upon a time, the possibility of a malpractice suit being filed against them was pretty much the only risk that law firms had to worry about, and, since lawyers were reluctant to sue other lawyers, they were a rarity. Today, facing a panoply of potential pitfalls, including the Sarbanes-Oxley…

Aug 26, 2008 3:26 PM CDT

Appeals Court Upholds Sarbanes-Oxley Law

A federal appeals court in a 2-1 decision has upheld a corporate accountability law passed following the collapse of Enron. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected contentions that the Sarbanes-Oxley law gave too much power to a nonprofit board that oversees accounting firms that audit companies,…

Aug 25, 2008 10:46 AM CDT

10 Stock Exchanges Plan Joint Enforcement of Insider Trading Rules

Ten stock exchanges plan to coordinate their efforts to enforce rules against insider trading, once their agreement to do so is OK’d by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Public comments are now being sought by the SEC concerning the plan. It would make the regulatory arm of the New…

Aug 13, 2008 7:56 PM CDT

WSJ: Accounting Rule Would Allow Lawyers to ‘Extort Settlements’

A proposed Financial Accounting Standards Board rule that would require companies to account for the potential cost of litigation will do less to offer transparency than it will be a boon for trial lawyers, a Wall Street Journal editorial maintains. “The real gift is to the trial lawyers, who will…

Aug 7, 2008 12:42 PM CDT