That question is on the docket for the Supreme Court in October. The Court agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB (08-861). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed in 2002 created PCAOB as a new government agency to regulate firms that audit the books of … Read more »
Reasons Why the SEC Wants to Regulate Political Contributions
The SEC has proposed a New Rule on Political Contributions by Certain Investment Advisers to prevent advisers from participating in pay to play practices affecting the management of public pension plans. They had proposed a similar rule in 1999. Many of the comments to that rule said that pay to play was not a problem … Read more »
Hollywood and the FCPA
With the guilty verdict in the case of handbag magnate Frederic Bourke and while waiting for the verdict in the Jefferson corruption case, we can turn to Hollywood for the next FCPA trial. The U.S. Attorney’s office charged a Hollywood producer with paying bribes to a foreign official. Gerald and Patricia Green are accused of … Read more »
New SEC Rule on Political Contributions by Certain Investment Advisers
The SEC has just published the text of the proposed rule on political contributions by investment advisers. SEC voted unanimously to propose this rule at its July 22nd Open Meeting. http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/2009/ia-2910.pdf The proposed rule is intended to curtail “pay to play” practices by investment advisers that seek to manage money for state and local governments. … Read more »
Compliance, Van Halen and Brown M&M’s
You may have heard the story about Van Halen’s banning of brown M&M’s from its dressing room. I chalked it up to the pampered life of rock stars. (Especially, when compared to the more mundane life of a chief compliance officer.) I just listened to the latest episode of This American Life which revealed that … Read more »
Top Ten Mistakes Lawyers Make with Social Media
Lawyers and law firms are rapidly adopting social media to market themselves and connect with peers. These are new tools. We are all trying to figure out how to use them. Just to make it more difficult, the tools themselves are rapidly evolving as we are learning how to use them. Some lawyers are doing … Read more »
National Data Privacy Law Proposed
With a multitude of states trying to protect their citizens when it comes to breaches of personal data security, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage compliance with this patchwork of laws. The Data Accountability and Trust Act (H.R. 2221) proposed in Congress proposed to preempt state laws and make regulation of data security a … Read more »
Webinar Materials for: Preparing for the strictest privacy law in the nation
As a follow up to Wednesday’s lunchtime webinar sponsored by Knowledge Management Associates, I wanted to post some materials for those of you that missed it and for those looking for notes and details. The slidedeck: KMA Insights Webinar July 2009 — Compliance with MA Privacy Law View more presentations from Knowledge Management Associates, LLC. … Read more »
Free and Law Firms
I just finished reading Chris Anderson’s new book: Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Given that I am a lawyer, I kept thinking about how his concepts apply to law firms. Let me say a few things up front. First, this is an excellent book that will make you think about how these concepts … Read more »
Avery Dennison Settles SEC Case for China FCPA Violation
Avery Dennison has settled two related Securities and Exchange Commission cases over alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. In an administrative action, the SEC imposed a cease-and-desist order against the consumer product company and ordered it to pay $318,470 in disgorgement and interest. In a civil case, Avery agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty. Avery … Read more »