TheCorporateCounsel.net

August 1, 2005

Senate Approves Commissioners’ Nominations

On Friday, the full Senate voted to confirm Rep. Christopher Cox as Chairman of the SEC and Roel C. Campos and Annette L. Nazareth to the two open Democratic seats. Cox’s term will run until June 2009; Nazareth’s expires in June 2007 and Campos’s expires in June 2010.

In this rather lengthy press release, Rep. Cox says he intends to resign his House seat on Tuesday, August 2 at 6 pm PDT and hopes to be sworn in as Chairman of the SEC on Wednesday, August 3. That would make Thursday, August 4 his first day on the job.

Securities Act Reform Effective December 1, 2005

The SEC’s website is reporting that the Securities Act Reform rules become effective December 1, 2005. As adopted, the rules were set to go into effect 120 days after publication in the Federal Register. By my calculations, December 1 is 122 days away from today, so that means we can expect the Federal Register publication to be this Wednesday.

The Federal Register is the official publication place for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. Whatever gets printed in the FR is the official text of the rules. The FR is published on all Federal work days and is available online (usually available by 6 a.m. each day).

The Staff has been saying that early compliance with the newly adopted rules will not be allowed. No word on the particular implementation of some of the rules, such as whether current shelf registration statements will be grandfathered or subject to the new three year life rule.

Carl’s Corner Posted

In this latest edition of “Carl’s Corner,” Carl Schneider, Of Counsel to Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia, is discussing the sometimes tricky issue of how to identify your client.