TheCorporateCounsel.net

January 4, 2017

Carl Icahn! Is Trump Pro-Business? Pro-Activist? Or Both…

Carl Icahn is helping to pick the next SEC Chair! Here’s the intro from this WSJ article by Andrew Ackerman:

A common assumption about Donald Trump is that he’ll run one of the most pro-business administrations in recent memory. But what if, instead, he hews to more of a pro-investor agenda that clashes with big business? That is certainly an increasingly likely outcome after Wednesday’s announcement that the president-elect has tapped billionaire investor Carl Icahn for an unpaid advisory role on overhauling financial regulations. Mr. Icahn, who has already played a part in selecting Mr. Trump’s head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is also vetting candidates to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The appointment suggests the president-elect will select policy makers more in the mold of Mr. Icahn, who has spent the past four decades battling big companies as an activist investor, than those favored by the pro-business wing of the Republican Party. While it’s true that Mr. Icahn generally supports rolling back regulations that he believes crimp the U.S. economy, he is also an outspoken advocate of corporate-governance changes loathed by the business community.

Cybersecurity: Big M&A Law Firms Hacked!

Over the years, we’ve blogged a few times about law firms & hacking, such as this one about emails & phishing and how law firms should strengthen their cybersecurity.

Last week, the SEC announced an enforcement action that is based on two big NYC firms being hacked by some Chinese traders who used the stolen information for insider trading. The SEC’s complaint doesn’t identify the firms – maybe because there’s a parallel criminal proceeding & the law firms are victims of a crime – but this American Lawyer article and WSJ article seem to identify them…

“Occupy the SEC”: Going After Insider Trading

It’s been a while since I blogged about the “Occupy the SEC” group. As noted on its Facebook page, the latest is that the group has filed an amicus curie brief in the push to have the US Supreme Court review the Salman case (this memo summarizes the recent oral arguments in that case)…

Broc Romanek