Officials from the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be among the vast array of speakers at the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section Spring Meeting April 16-18 in San Francisco.
A highlight of the three-day conference will be a 90-minute “Dialogue with the SEC Director of Corporation Finance,” when Director Keith Higgins sits down with Catherine T. Dixon, chair of the Business Law Section’s Federal Regulation of Securities Committee, on Friday, April 17.
Program highlights include:
• “What’s Unfair and Deceptive Now?” — Prohibitions on “unfair, deceptive or abusive acts and practices” are old news, but new agencies and interpretations are remaking these standards and reinventing the process of how these standards are enforced. A panel of state and federal enforcement lawyers, and private practitioners, will review the process and substance behind UDAAP claims made by the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and state financial regulators in state and federal courts and administrative tribunals. Speakers include Kristen Donoghue, CFPB deputy enforcement director for policy and strategy, Washington, D.C.; and Carolyn L. Hann, FTC senior staff attorney, Washington, D.C.
• “Cyber Security: The Cold, Hard Reality of Protecting Financial Information” — A panel will explore the increasingly sophisticated threats banks face in cyberspace, from denial-of-service attacks perpetrated by nation states, to digital mobsters looking to cash in on customers’ accounts, to “hacktivists” who target banks for political reasons. Topics will also include the evolving regulatory framework, and how victims of cyberattacks are caught between criminal prosecutors seeking to bring perpetrators to justice, regulators who view the banks as potentially culpable for the hack and private litigants who seek recompense for harms from the attacks. Speakers include DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Bitkower, Washington, D.C.; and Kevin Greenfield, OCC director for bank information technology policy, Washington, D.C.
• “What Companies Need to Know Now About the SEC’s Financial Reporting Initiatives” — Panelists, including David Woodcock, SEC regional director in Fort Worth, Texas, will discuss the issues, targets and focus of accounting and auditing cases brought by the SEC during the last couple of years, including cases that did not involve a restatement of financial statements, internal control cases, and cases involving management discussion and analysis disclosure. The panel will also examine the Division of Corporation Finance review process as it relates to financial reporting issues and appropriate responses to such comments.
• “Dialogue with the SEC’s Director of Corporation Finance” — Catherine T. Dixon, chair of the Business Law Section’s Federal Regulation of Securities Committee, will dialogue with Director Keith F. Higgins during this 90-minute session.
• “When Antitrust, Healthcare and Financial Distress Collide: Navigating New Health Delivery Systems and Combinations in the World of Competition and Distress” — This program will look at the impact of the Affordable Care Act on combinations of similar providers (e.g., two hospitals) and combinations of different kinds of providers (e.g., a hospital and physician group), the economic pressures to combine, and antitrust concerns in distressed and non-distressed situations. Speakers include Thomas Greene, FTC special counsel, San Francisco.
• “The Final Frontier: Regulation A+ and Crowdfunding — This panel will discuss the federal and state regulatory landscape relating to Regulation A+ and crowdfunding and how issuer’s and their counsel can navigate in this new regulatory environment. Panelists will include practitioners and representatives from both the SEC and the North American Securities Administrators Association. Speakers include Sebastian Gomez, SEC chief, Office of Small Business Policy, Washington, D.C.; and Faith Anderson, chief of regulation, Washington Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division, Tumwater, Wash.
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