SEC Changes Proposed for New Approach to Criminal Enforcement, Mandatory Disclosure of Violations by Public Companies

By Daniel J. Hurson — Senior Partner in the Hurson Law Firm, LLP, and a former federal prosecutor and SEC enforcement trial lawyer

The SEC will survive, and emerge stronger, from the challenges it has faced recently. It has solid leadership and a highly professional staff. It needs to consider the various internal management reforms that have been suggested by various astute outside observers, including streamlining the enforcement process, reorganizing the top-heavy staff structure of the Enforcement Division, prioritizing its cases, and making sure the Commissioners themselves avoid any colossal mistakes or regulatory blunders which can open the doors to the next big financial debacle that no one today sees coming.

This observer, a former enforcement division trial lawyer who makes no claim to be an expert in the securities laws but perhaps has the detachment afforded one who saw the agency from the inside for awhile but was not there so long as to become a “career” SEC insider, here offers several “outside the box” suggestions which might help the SEC regain its footing as the top regulator of the financial markets.