Christopher Cox, former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is going to join Bingham McCutchen LLP in their Orange County office. From 1977 to 1986, Cox worked out of the Orange County office Latham & Watkins. At the time of his retirement in 1986 he was the Partner in Charge of the Corporate … Read more »
Year: 2009
New Massachusetts Campaign Finance, Ethics and Lobbying Law
After the well-publicized scandals with Salvatore DiMasi and Dianne Wilkerson, the lawmakers on Beacon Hill passed ethics legislation yesterday banning politicians from accepting gifts and upping the consequences for ethical violations. The Governor had threatened to veto a sales tax increase unless this act was passed, along with reforms in the pension system and the … Read more »
Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2009
The Department of Treasury released its proposed legislation in increase the regulatory oversight on private investment funds: Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2009. The Administration’s legislation would require that all investment advisers with more than $30 million of assets under management to register with the SEC. This is presumably the Obama plan and … Read more »
California Adopts e-Discovery Rules
Never mind the budget crisis or handing out IOUs, California has passed its own Electronic Discovery Act. California joins the 30 other states that have decided to include provisions in their rules aimed directly at the discovery of Electronically Stored Information. The Act amends the California Code of Civil Procedure by expressly permitting discovery of … Read more »
Special Report on Sovereign Wealth Funds
Pensions & Investments published a Special Report on Sovereign Wealth Funds. The report is based on a survey conducted in April by the Oxford University Center for Employment, Work and Finance: Oxford SWF Project. Sovereign wealth funds are perceived to be shrouded in mystery because, like many private investment funds, they do not publicly report … Read more »
Ethics and the Sales Relationship in World-Class Bull
The May issue of the Harvard Business Review offers up an ethics problem in its monthly case study: World-Class Bull (subscription required for full article). The three commentaries offer very different reactions to the facts presented in the case study’s fact pattern. John Humphreys, Zafar U. Ahmed, and Mildred Pryor penned the fact pattern. The … Read more »
Obama Plan for Financial Regulatory Reform and Private Investment Funds
Along with the Hedge Fund Adviser Registration Act of 2009, the Hedge Fund Transparency Act of 2009 and the Private Fund Transparency Act of 2009, we also have the Obama plan for financial reform: Financial Regulatory Reform – A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation. Under the Obama plan, all advisers to private pools … Read more »
California IOUs
California started issuing IOUs instead of checks. I know some people that got an IOU instead of their tax refund. They are not alone. In the last week, State Controller John Chiang’s office issued 91,000 IOUs worth $354 million to people expecting tax refunds, to state vendors and to local governments. Banks have been willing … Read more »
Enterprise 2.0 by Andrew McAfee
I just read an early preview chapter from Andrew McAfee’s forthcoming book Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization’s Toughest Challenges. The book is scheduled for release later this year from Harvard Business Press. You can also download and read the preview chapter: Introduction of Enterprise 2.0. Much like Professor McAfee, I too was … Read more »
Discretion and Compliance
Martin Lomasney created a famous saying on the importance of discretion: “Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink.” At the time of Lomasney, it was not email but telegrams that were the principal method of electronic communication. But those telegrams just ended up on … Read more »