These are some compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention:
The Fallout from the Latest NLRB Salvo on Social Media by Daniel Schwartz In Connecticut Employment Law Blog
[E]very pronouncement from the NLRB is treated as if it is written in stone with lots of suggestions on how to rewrite all of your policies.
The latest was an updated report last month from the NLRB on the topic again. Rather than jump on board with a quick summary, I’ve decided to take a step back and really look at how significant this report really is.
According to Jon Hyman at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, it’s a ”mess. In a mere 35 pages, the NLRB appears to have ripped the guts out of the ability of employers to regulate any kind of online communications between employees.”
Stressed-Out Compliance Officers May Soon Feel Even More Heat From SEC by Bruce Carton in Compliance Week’s Enforcement Action
Unfortunately, this stress level is about to go even higher for compliance officers at investment firms if the SEC follows through on a recent decision that such compliance officers may themselves be sued as “supervisors.” According to Investment News, the SEC “sees compliance as an area ripe for scrutiny.” At a compliance seminar in January, the SEC Enforcement Division’s Bruce Karpati, co-chief of the Asset Management Unit, said that “compliance programs are front and center for us. There’s going to be more soon on that in terms of enforcement actions.”
Crowdfunding and Other Recent Legislative Initiatives Focused on Capital Raising and Job Creation by Louis A. Bevilacqua, Joseph R. Tiano, Jr., David S. Baxter, Ali Panjwani and K. Brian Joe In Pillsbury’s Investment Fund Law Blog
This article summarizes various legislation introduced in Congress that would make it easier for smaller companies to raise capital and would lessen the regulatory burden on those companies.
2011 Annual FISMA Executive Summary Report (.pdf) from the SEC’s Office of Inspector General
The purpose of this law is to recognize the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States. The law emphasizes the need for organizations to develop, document, and implement organization-wide programs that provide security for the information systems that support the organization’s operations and assets, as well as information systems that are provided or managed by other agencies, contractors, or other sources.