Archive for May, 2009

The life of a law firm lawyer typically involves a great deal of time-keeping. During my thirteen years at a big law firm I saw lots of different systems. All were flawed and all had weaknesses. Certainly, none were fun. But this Lego brick time keeping system looks like fun! As the author points out,… » Read More

Is there a gap between generations of legal and white collar professionals in terms of technology in the workplace? LexisNexis conducted a survey to see if there really is a gap and how big it is: LexisNexis Technology Gap Survey (.pdf). After looking at the survey results, I see that there clearly is a gap…. » Read More

Hopefully your annual meeting of investors or shareholders went better than the annual meeting for Fortis. Shareholders in Ghent, Belgium threw shoes, coins and ballot boxes. (There is even video.) Broc Romanek put together his thoughts on Proxy Season Developments: Ten Signs that Things are Changing Online. First Use of Live Internet Voting Soliciting Shareholder… » Read More

There has been a lot of focus on the Supreme Court’s acceptance of the PCAOB case: Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB (08-861). It squarely addresses an interesting administrative law question. I also find it interesting that this case originates from the last bout of financial fraud in the press (the collapse of Enron) and comes… » Read More

On May 14, the Securities Exchange Commission said they were proposing New Custody Rules for Investment Advisers. They summarized the proposed rules but did not release the actual text of the proposed rules. Now the proposed rules are available in Release No. IA-2876 (.pdf). Comments must be received on or before July 28, 2009. SUMMARY:… » Read More

After the embarrassing news that two of its attorneys are accused of insider trading, the SEC has decided to strengthen its internal compliance program to guard against inappropriate employee securities trading. “It only makes sense that we have a world-class compliance program – just as we expect from those we regulate,” said Chairman Schapiro. “The… » Read More

JD Supra is a repository of free legal information shared by legal professionals. It gives you a platform to publish work to a wide audience, maintain a profile and get credited for your experience. Today, JD Supra launched a new feature they call Law Centers. This feature focuses JD Supra content  into subject areas for… » Read More

Not since the Siemens FCPA case have I seen the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act show up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.  That case was highlighted because of billion dollar fine. The big part of today’s story was the number of active FCPA cases. According to the story there are at least… » Read More

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it’s OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). In this presentation at the February 2009 TED Talks he summarizes some of his studies on cheating. It sounds like he has conducted some fascinating research on cheating. I think it provides… » Read More

Compliance Building is now available on the Kindle from Amazon: Compliance Building (Kindle Edition). I have added the Kindle subscription as a third choice on the Subscribe page. (Amazon sets the Kindle subscription price. I would have made it available free if it were an option.) Buy a Kindle or the bigger (and more expensive)… » Read More