It's a disheartening time to be contemplating a career in the legal profession.
Any compliance officer should know what happens to firms caught violating Regulation S-P or other data privacy rules, even when no customers are harmed: big fines and embarrassing headlines (CR, 5/31).
Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have a pretty dry--if highly important--agenda to address.
It's been an anxious time for the Pubic Company Accounting Oversight Board in recent months as the auditors' auditor had its fate held in the 18 hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorneys and judges don't always see eye to eye, whether contesting a murder trial or negotiating the settlement of a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement.
Legend has it that simple tools built the Pyramids of Giza.
Spare a thought for the U.K. Financial Services Authority. The FSA once was urged to take a "light touch" to help boost London's status as a financial center, only to find itself castigated after the market meltdown for supposedly having been too lenient in overseeing its flock.
It's taken decades of verbal fisticuffs of the sort that would probably be appreciated by fans of the Montreal Canadiens, but Canada at last looks like it's moving towards a national securities regulator.
Sometimes even politicians have to put politics above cash.
Time magazine last week trumpeted the emergence of a group of women who, in a world dominated by men (Wall Street has little to boast about in terms of gender diversity among its top ranks), are playing lead roles in the battle to reform financial regulation and sniff out wrongdoings.
Regulators, firms and pundits have spent the last week or so trying to get to the bottom of the Blink-And-You-Missed-It stock market crash of 2010.
In-house lawyers at firms operating in Europe received a slap in the face recently when an adviser to the region's top court said the documents they handle and advice they give to fellow employees cannot be kept from the prying eyes of regulators.
The Securities and Exchange Commission prides itself on being able to catch financial wrongdoers with their pants down.
Bonnie and Clyde it ain't, but a growing number of couples are getting busted (in a hail of enforcement actions, not bullets) over financial shenanigans.
There's a time and a place to get potential securities fraud guilt off your chest, but an upscale pizza joint seems, well, unusual.
Settling a Securities and Exchange Commission action is never something firms look forward to, not least because of the fines such deals involve.
In the wake of the financial meltdown, regulators have been breathing down Wall Street's neck to boost risk management through tighter compensation practices.
In recent years, regulators have been at pains to warn brokers and investment advisers to be careful of how they treat seniors.
--Richard Ketchum, chairman and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, on a greater role for industry professionals.
Financial regulators are paid, in part, to be a skeptical bunch.
The current malaise in the legal profession is taking some unusual forms.
When it comes to regulation it seems age can matter.
The Great Recession has dealt a tough hand to millions, from auto workers in Michigan to corporate lawyers and compliance officers on Wall Street.
The New York Times reported last week that members of the financial industry's upper echelons are starting to wonder if they should continue funding the Democratic Party as President Barack Obama takes aim at them.
There are many incentives for companies to do the right thing when it comes to compliance.
The complex world of financial crime (Wall Street and its sequel aside) has rarely received the Hollywood treatment, or even made a splash on the small screen.
As every compliance officer knows, there's nothing quite like the visit of a regulator to quicken the pulse, even if everything at the firm is in order.
Regulators around the world have been looking at how banks and other financial institutions are run in the hope of finding ways to avoid a repeat of the credit crisis.
Jeffrey Young, the former v.p. of supervision of First Allied Securities, has been fined for allegedly failing to supervise a former representative who has been charged with making unsuitable trades and churning the accounts of two Florida municipalities.
When it comes to writing a naughty-or-nice list, the U.S. public has decided that Wall Street bosses have had enough presents and need tougher rules to make them be good boys and girls.
The U.S. Supreme Court is not renowned for its efforts to build a fan base--T.V. cameras are still on the unwanted list, for example.
2009 won't go down as a vintage year for lawyers who service Wall Street and the City. But where there's crisis there's opportunity.
In one of the more surprising compliance quotes of the year, Bloomberg reported Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack as welcoming the more intimate oversight his firm receives from the Federal Reserve after switching to a bank holding company.
Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority went back to school on Friday, visiting 18 elementary schools across the country to promote financial literacy among kids. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro pointed to record levels of financial ignorance among children, with three-quarters having failed a recent survey.
Wall Street took a battering over the last 12 months and so did those, such as corporate lawyers, who cater to its denizens.
The U.S. Supreme Court is in some ways an arena where lawyers do gladiatorial combat to win a thumbs-up.
With Halloween approaching, it's worth remembering that there can be scarier things to encounter this time of year than gangs of kids threatening vandalism to get candy, or looking at your post-meltdown 401(k).
The pendulum of opinion on financial regulation swings almost as regularly, though more predictably, than the markets themselves.
Attorneys and lobbyists were gritting their teeth last week as the U.S. Supreme Court kicked off its new term.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have faced a barrage of abuse for being too easy of the industry.
Many observers have lambasted the Canadian regulatory and court systems for failing to crack down on corporate fraud.
General counsel, like most people, have had a rough ride over the last year.
Some good deeds go unrewarded.
Sometimes you can't help for trying.
Next time your company's attorneys charge you for advising on a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement or nasty shareholder lawsuit, ask yourself a question: How committed are they to you, their client?
Investor advocates in the U.S. often despair when executives walk away from corporate skullduggery with barely a judicial slap on the wrist, or wallet.
How times change. Just a few months ago Wall Street banks were losing money, many coming cap-in-hand to Washington, D.C., for rescue cash.
Investment banks have earned themselves a lot of money running the rule over proposed deals and--in most cases--giving them the green light.
When most people want the answer to a tricky question, they search the Internet or read books.