And everybody ain't happy. Surprise, surprise.

-- MDT

Labels: SOX

Pretty interesting interview on the above subject featuring Mark J. Biros of Proskauer Rose and presented by The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. Biros is a partner at Proskauer and co-head of the firm's DC office.

-- MDT

Labels: corporate investigation, SOX

It is Larry Ribstein week here at The Daily Caveat. Scroll down a few posts and you'll see a link to details of Ideoblog author, Ribstein's upcoming paper questioning the legitimacy of the ongoing prosecution of class action firm, Milberg Weiss on racketeering charges (strange bedfellows, indeed).

Just by accident (thank you Fintag), today, I ran across an article well worth reading in which author Heidi Moore namechecks Ribstein, an avowed (like really avowed) opponent of Sarbanes Oxley. Moore's article is a detailed defense of the controversial SOX act. Moore endeavors to puncture many of the common criticism of SOX. Does she succeed? Decide for yourself.

-- MDT

Labels: class action, corporate governance, SOX

Interesting article regarding some recent comments from US Treasury Secretary Paulson suggesting a sort of corporate puritanism as a path to deregulation. As you might imagine, The Ethical Corporation is neither convinced nor amused by this.

You might be though...

-- MDT

Labels: deregulation, Hank Paulson, SOX

From time to time I flog the content available via Mondaq, an online service which allows subject matter experts in the legal, regulatory and financial arenas to post their articles on the web for review. Most articles offer a free partial preview, but with a free subscription you can search and review all the articles you like. And believe me, you will like...

The on that caught my eye this morning is from Scott Harshbarger and Goutam U. Jois from Proskauer Rose and concerns Sarbanes-Oxley And The Future Of Corporate Governance.

Good stuff, and typical of what you'll fined here.

-- MDT

Labels: Mondaq, Proskauer Rose, SOX

You'll want to take your time reading this post from Werner Kranenburg. Kranenburg builds a case, supported by some notable sources, that Sarbox isn't the boogeyman it has been made out to me with regard to U.S. capital market competitiveness. Rather, he argues that we should look to the current ill-advised conflation of domestic market regulation and foreign policy when endeavoring to understand Wallstreet's diminished appeal to international business.

Designed to help provide further security and sharper tools of influence of intractable governments abroad, capital market sanctions were embraced in the late 1990s as, well, warfare by other means. The SEC's Office of Global Security Risk, initiated under former SEC head William Donaldson administers capital market sanctions, but the roots of the policy go further back. The architect of the policy? U.S. congressman Christopher Cox. Cox now, of course, is better known as the chairman of the SEC.

Interesting stuff, with plenty of meat on the bone. Check out the full post from Kranenburg here. Also be sure to bookmark Werner's blog, With Vigour and Zeal, for further reading.

-- MDT

Labels: capital market sanctions, capital markets, Christopher Cox, regulation, SEC, SOX, With Vigor and Zeal

Check out this Washington Post profile of Conrad W. Hewitt, "chief accounting guru" for the SEC.

Hewitt, a former managing partner at Ernst & Young, joined the SEC in July 2006. Hewitt also serves on the boards of some ten different companies, which may bear heavily on his thinking about the controversial Sarbanes Oxley reform package.

The Bush administration, cheered along by the business lobby, has made it clear that rolling back Sarbox is a quiet priority of their last lame duck year. What will happen to SarBox depends quite a lot on Mr. Hewitt...best get to know him a bit better.

-- MDT

Labels: Conrad W. Hewit, SEC, SOX

As you might have noticed, I've been catching up on my blog reading recently. Another new-to-me site that might be of interest to regular readers of this space is theracetothebottom.org. Great looking blog with great content as well. The site is run by University of Denver College of Law professor, J. Robert Brown, Jr. with contributions from his students. Great stuff.

-- MDT

Labels: blogs, Race to the Bottom, securities, SOX