The SEC Speaks at the New York City Bar March 8

private fund attorney NYCWayne Carlin, litigation partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, chaired a program last Friday at the New York City Bar on hot topics in SEC enforcement. There were a number of interesting panels, most notably on the new whistleblower rules, the FCPA, insider trading and investment manager/investment company issues.

The SEC was well represented.  Andrew Calamari, the head of the SEC’s New York regional office, gave the keynote speech.

I took away three things. First, I found the SEC’s openness refreshing, no “gotcha“ attitude here if you ask me.  Second, there were no surprises. So please refer to the blogs I posted in the last month or so on SEC top priorities for 2013.  You will find a clear roadmap. Third, I got the distinct impression that the SEC believes that there is a long road ahead for new registrants, especially private, i.e. hedge, funds. The concern I sensed here was that the “fiduciary” concept may be unfamiliar territory in that space and will require a steep learning curve.

Main topics for investment managers were in keeping with all the SEC’s communications so far: as part of the “private fund initiative,” the SEC will focus on valuation, performance reporting and other performance issues such as aberrational returns, as well as conflicts of interests.  I will cover some of these in more detail in separate posts in the next few months, so stay tuned.

Please e-mail or tweet me any questions or comments; they are  very welcome as always.

Eckerle Law offers legal advice in a variety of transactional and regulatory matters serving your business law needs. If your company would like to strengthen its business practices, please contact us today so we can leverage our experience to create real-life business and legal solutions to help your business thrive.