Commercial Litigation Update

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Loper[1] decision, which overturned the longstanding precedent of the Chevron doctrine for agency deference, it was anticipated that lower courts, as well as the Supreme Court, would begin to decide whether specific deference to agency interpretation and power was appropriate, likely on a policy-by-policy and agency-by-agency basis. As expected, in the few short months since the Loper decision, the SEC and FINRA’s administrative power to seek and award civil penalties in their in-house disciplinary function has been called into question.

Specifically, alongside and in the same term as Loper, the Supreme Court decided SEC v. Jarksey, which reviewed whether the Seventh Amendment entitles a defendant to a jury trial when the SEC seeks civil penalties for securities fraud.  In Jarksey, the Supreme Court held that, “[w]hen the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial.”

Last week, FINRA published its 2022 Report on its Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report”), identifying key areas of focus for broker-dealer exams this year. The Report contains many of the same areas of focus as last year’s report, including anti-money laundering, cybersecurity, Reg BI and Form CRS, communications with the public, best execution and segregation of customer funds. Although the Report again identifies these general areas, it identifies new concerns and recent examination findings in those areas. In an effort to be user friendly, the Report highlights that new content in bold and identifies new areas for 2022. A key takeaway from the Report is the continued challenges posed by technology.

Three years ago, the United States Supreme Court confirmed in Cyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, 138 S. Ct. 1061 (2018) that claims brought under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) are subject to “concurrent jurisdiction,” meaning they can be asserted either in federal or state court and that a state court action cannot be removed to federal court. On the last day of this past term, the Supreme Court announced that it has now accepted certiorari in Pivotal Software, Inc. v. Tran in which it will address the follow-up question of whether the ...

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which includes the SEC’s rulemaking agenda.

According to the SEC’s press release, notable proposed and final rulemaking areas include:

• Disclosure relating to climate risk, human capital, including workforce diversity and corporate board diversity, and cybersecurity risk
  Market structure modernization within equity markets, treasury markets, and other fixed income markets
• Transparency ...

Over the past 15 years, chief compliance officers (“CCOs”) for financial services firms have come under increased scrutiny as the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) have brought more frequent enforcement actions seeking to hold CCOs personally liable. CCOs understandably have been concerned about this trend and financial service firms have focused on the chilling effect that the enforcement actions may have on the vital role CCOs play in their organizations and the quality of the COO applicant pool.

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations (the “Division”) released its 2021 examination priorities.  The priorities reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including how it has increased risks related to cybersecurity; a new focus on climate change; and appear to recognize concerns raised by the recent trading in GameStop stock.

Impact of COVID-19

The onset of the work-from-home environment arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, has, among other things, increased the SEC’s concerns about “endpoint security, data loss, remote ...

The recently issued 2021 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program (the “Report”) replaces, and combines, two previously published FINRA reports – The Report on Examination Findings and Observations as well as the Risk Monitoring and Examination Program Priorities Letter. The Report addresses key regulatory topics in four categories: (1) Firm Operations; (2) Communications and Sales Practices; (3) Market Integrity; and (4) Financial Management. In particular, FINRA identified the following issues that impact many member firms.

Regulation Best ...

Recently, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”) issued a Risk Alert to provide broker-dealers with guidance on examinations regarding regulation Best Interest (“Reg BI”).  Reg BI requires that when broker-dealers make a recommendation regarding securities to a retail customer it must act in the best interest of the customer, without placing its own financial or other interest ahead of the retail customer’s interest.  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) also ...

On September 6, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California preliminarily approved a settlement in Harvey v. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. The significance of the result is two-fold. First, substantively, it is a reminder to financial services firms of potential liability under California labor law when advisors are required to pay for business expenses. Second, procedurally, the court’s approval of the settlement is edifying on the subject of parallel class actions.

In the Harvey case, plaintiffs challenged Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s ...

On August 20, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) charged Mosaic Capital, LLC, formerly known as AOC Securities, LLC (“AOC”), and its CEO with failing to adequately supervise an employee who engaged in securities fraud. Pursuant to the SEC Orders, AOC and its CEO were ordered to pay penalties of $250,000 and $40,000, respectively. The SEC’s actions serve as a reminder to broker-dealers—and members of firm management—of the potential for liability based on the actions of a self-dealing employee, and the need to guard against such activities.

The ...

Broker-dealers (“BDs”) should be aware that, on June 5, 2019, the SEC adopted “Regulation Best Interest” (“Reg BI”), which requires BDs and their registered representatives (“RRs”) to “act in the best interest of the retail customer,” when “making a recommendation” regarding “a securities transaction or investment strategy.” In addition, the SEC’s new rules require BDs to deliver Form CRS relationship summaries (“Form CRS”) to retail customers. BDs will need to be in compliance with Reg BI and Form CRS, which were accompanied by more than ...