SEC

* Daily lawyer tips is just killing it. The latest is on the perils of actually becoming a senior associate. [Daily Lawyer Tips]

* Lawyers can’t be getting dumber if no one (hyperbole alert) is passing the bar exam. [Bloomberg BNA]

* A kickstarter our readers are sure to love: a new board game that combines Would You Rather?, Poker, and Rock, Paper, Scissors with arguing. What’s not to love? [Kickstarter]

* Pile-on-the-SEC-week (the securities kind, not the football kind) continues. This time, Judge Berman is taking a crack. [Dealbreaker]

* The civil justice system is riddled with inequities, especially if you happen to be a plaintiff. [Mighty]

* Is a new pro-worker law in the works? [Lawyers, Guns & Money]

* The NFL field that is the subject of lawsuits is getting changed… not that they’re admitting any wrongdoing, natch. [Deadspin]

* The Ninth Circuit? Not a fan of Sheriff Joe. [AZ Central]

What lies behind the genius...

* ABC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams is suing his neighbors over his lawyerly lair — and one of the defendants is a Biglaw partner at a top firm. Expect more on this later. [New York Post]

* Speaking of Biglaw, a familiar tale of financial performance: gross revenue at Am Law 100 firms grew by 4 percent in the first half of 2015, but driven by rate increases rather than demand growth. [American Lawyer]

* If you want the Supreme Court to hear your case, try to steer your cert petition clear of the “long conference,” known as the place “where petitions go to die.” [New York Times]

* Speaking of SCOTUS, the Court won’t come to the rescue of the Kentucky county clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — time to issue those licenses or quit, Kim Davis. [How Appealing]

* But the justices did come to the (temporary) rescue of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, allowing him to remain free until SCOTUS acts on his petition for certiorari. [SCOTUSblog via How Appealing]

* Are criticisms of the S.E.C.’s administrative-law procedures correct? Here’s a study from Professor David Zaring. [New York Times]

* The Show-Me State leads when it comes to showing defendants to their deaths: Missouri has displaced Texas as the “epicenter of the American death penalty.” [The Marshall Project]

* Speaking of capital punishment, I predicted that these particular Ninth Circuit judges wouldn’t be too sympathetic to this challenge to the death penalty — and based on yesterday’s oral argument, it seems I was right. [How Appealing]

* Who says political foes can’t work together? It’s easy when there’s a ton of money on the line. Newt Gingrich and Howard Dean make their first joint appearance as Dentons employees. [National Law Journal]

* Have you been paying attention to the SEC? Catch up with is analysis of the 3 major trends of the Mary Jo White era. [Corporate Counsel]

* Speaking of the SEC are they playing small ball, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, with the makers of a popular baby formula? [Litigation Daily]

* Former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati employee, Dmitry Braverman, was sentenced to two years in jail for insider trading based on information he learned at the firm. [Wall Street Journal]

* Perkins Coie helps Avvo, an online legal services marketplace, with fundraising to clock in with a $650 million valuation. [Am Law Daily]

One of Liz Warren's SEC critiques seems weird.

* Mary Jo White’s sizable net worth is causing sizable headaches over at the SEC. [DealBook / New York Times]

* If you work at a law firm and take way too long to perform simple tasks in Microsoft Word or Excel, shape up: a new test, developed by former in-house lawyer Casey Flaherty, could expose your weaknesses — and lead to your work being discounted. [Capital Business / Washington Post]

* More from Howard Bashman about the misadventures of Howard Shipley, the Foley & Lardner partner who might get spanked by SCOTUS for a bizarre filing. [How Appealing]

* An S.D.N.Y. jury held the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization liable for supporting six terrorist attacks and issued a verdict of $218.5 million — an award that will under the law get tripled (collected remains to be seen). [WSJ Law Blog]

* Wall Street banks and their law firms are getting serious about cybersecurity. [New York Times]

* Thanks to Emily Kelchen for her review of Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link), which she calls “a true legal thriller.” [Wisconsin Lawyer]

There was a time when orders for securities were straight forward – buy, sell, limit and perhaps a few variations...

In a December 10, 2014 speech, Norm Champ, the Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, offered a glimpse at the top 10 industry lessons learned in 2014. While admitting that his Top Ten list “may not be as entertaining as one you would see on Letterman,” Champ said the list provides a view into both how the Division operates and its future goals.

The broker windows approach of filing groups of actions together which center on common theme is expanding to auditor independence.

Did you know that 87% of experienced arbitrators report *always* trying to follow applicable law in rendering an award? That will come as a surprise to many critics who like to complain that arbitrators do not adhere to established law.

On November 10, 2014, the SEC announced a settlement with Eureeca Capital SPC, which is a crowdinvesting portal incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Eureeca’s website seeks to match foreign-based issuers with investors interested in making equity investments. The website provides information about various issuers and their offerings. This information was accessible to U.S. residents, despite the fact that the securities offered through the site were not registered with the SEC. In alleging that Eureeca violated Section 5 of the Securities Act by offering unregistered securities for sale, the SEC noted that Eureeca took no steps to comply with the exemption from registration found in Rule 506(c). Specifically, the SEC alleged that Eureeca took insufficient steps to confirm that the U.S. investors were accredited investors. The SEC also alleged that Eureeca was acting as an unregistered broker-dealer by, among other things, (i) encouraging investments in the offerings on its site, (ii) completing the final legal requirements for the transaction (i.e. accommodating the swap of funds for equity), and (iii) receiving a percentage of the funds from all fully funded offerings as a fee.

The Day After: There are still a few undecided races but we know that Republicans will control the House and the Senate in the next session of Congress. This may provide an opportunity for more bipartisan legislation in the financial services area. There is reason to hope that Congress will be able to pass legislation that President Obama will sign that could soften some of the hard edges of the Dodd-Frank Act, such as the effect of regulations intended for large banks on small and regional banks, the application of SIFI rules to insurance companies, the regulation of end-users of derivatives, the broad definition of municipal advisor and the required disclosure of the origin of conflict minerals. In addition, the SEC may now adopt, pare back or drop some proposals that have been on hold, like the crowdfunding rules, amendments to Rule 506 and Form D, and fiduciary standards for brokers. Whatever happens, we’ll be here to cover it.

On October 9th the SEC brought a settled administrative action against E*Trade Securities and G1 Execution Services (formerly E*Trade Capital Markets) for their part in the unregistered sales of billions of shares of penny stocks between 2007 and 2011. Suffice it to say that they weren’t the only ones. On the same day the Commission also (1) released FAQs on a broker-dealer’s duties on when trying to rely on the reasonable inquiry exemption when executing customer orders; and (2) issued a Risk Alert on broker-dealer controls regarding customer sales of penny stocks. The gist is, broker-dealers cannot turn a blind eye when executing its customers’ sales of securities of dubious or uncertain origin. These documents are all part of the SEC’s larger effort to focus on financial system gatekeepers and thereby save staff resources that would otherwise be spent chasing individual bad actors. What’s most interesting to me about the case and accompanying educational materials is how old the underlying principles are. The SEC has been preaching about broker-dealer oversight of little-known securities for literally half a century. And yet here we are.

As reported this week by Law360 (subscription required), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) recently issued a reminder (Regulatory Notice 14-40) warning firms against the use of confidentiality provisions in settlement agreements that prohibit or otherwise restrict customers or anyone else (such as current employees) from communicating with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), FINRA, or any federal or state regulatory authority regarding a possible securities law violation.

On July 23, 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted 3–2 to significantly amend the regulatory framework of money market mutual funds (MMFs), particularly Rule 2a-7 under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act).1 These changes come four years after the SEC last adopted several amendments to Rule 2a-7 and follow a lengthy debate surrounding MMF reform among regulators and industry participants. The amendments and related regulations will drastically alter the MMF industry and force MMFs and their boards of directors and advisers to make substantial changes to their product offerings, operations, and compliance processes.

Additional information about defendant number 4 in the Dewey criminal case, including testimonials from people who know him and information about his family's finances.

At which elite law firm did the defendant work, and from which school did he receive his law degree?

What do we know about this handsome and highly accomplished young lawyer? He's extremely bright and he's legal-world aristocracy, for starters.

Brainstorming some reasons why these charges were brought by the D.A. and not the U.S. Attorney.

Who's getting charged, and with what?