In Hollywood, the sequel (or, even more so, the third installment) is rarely as good as the original movie. In the world of enforcement, the same rings true....more
3/6/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Consent Order ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
False Statements ,
Financial Crimes ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations ,
Subsidiaries ,
White Collar Crimes
Like a fashion trend that never fails to come back in style (we look fabulous in baggy jeans, btw), we're revisiting SEC enforcement actions involving public company executive perquisites – or "perks" – a topic we have...more
1/31/2025
/ Cooperation ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employee Benefits ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Compensation ,
Perks ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Settlement
The SEC on Oct. 22, 2024, announced charges against four companies for allegedly making materially misleading disclosures concerning the impact of cybersecurity incidents associated with the compromised SolarWinds' Orion...more
10/31/2024
/ Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Form 8-K ,
Material Misrepresentation ,
Misleading Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Software ,
SolarWinds
This Holland & Knight blog post is the second installment in a two-part series that examines the challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) charges in its landmark case against SolarWinds Corp....more
7/29/2024
/ Board of Directors ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Material Misrepresentation ,
Misleading Statements ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
SolarWinds
The SEC continues to expand its cybersecurity enforcement authority to include allegations that a company's failure to monitor its managed security service providers (MSSP) amounts to violations of federal securities laws....more
7/9/2024
/ Accounting Controls ,
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Form 8-K ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Internal Controls ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act
The SEC has been aggressively pursuing cybersecurity investigations and enforcement actions against public companies and foreign private issuers. In these actions, the SEC often alleges one of two theories: 1) that the...more
7/8/2024
/ Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Form 8-K ,
Materiality ,
Misrepresentation ,
Professional Liability ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Puffery ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Security and Privacy Controls ,
SolarWinds
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance Director Erik Gerding released a statement on May 21, 2024, addressing Disclosure of Cybersecurity Incidents Determined to be Material and...more
5/23/2024
/ Compliance ,
Compliance Dates ,
Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Form 8-K ,
Materiality ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 6, 2024, adopted a new slate of standardized climate-related disclosure rules for public companies and foreign private issuers. Adopted by a 3-2 vote, the final rules...more
3/11/2024
/ Annual Reports ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Reporting ,
Foreign Private Issuers ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulation S-X ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Assessment ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed recently to revisit a challenge to Nasdaq's board diversity rule. As we previously reported, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit upheld the rule in October 2023....more
3/4/2024
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
En Banc Review ,
Gender Equity ,
LGBTQ ,
Listing Standards ,
Nasdaq ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Woman Board Members
The SEC's five commissioners on March 6, 2024, will vote on whether to adopt long-awaited public company climate disclosure rules that would require registrants to report climate-related risks and metrics. In a Feb. 28, 2024,...more
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Nasdaq's board diversity rule, which the SEC first approved in August 2021 and was then challenged as unconstitutionally discriminatory and an improper...more
10/24/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Appellate Courts ,
Board of Directors ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Free Speech ,
Nasdaq ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities Exchange Act
Outside of the small circle of federal securities law nerds (we proudly proclaim our membership), the phrase "disclosure controls and procedures" (DCP) rarely garners much attention. However, a recent settled order issued by...more
The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) released a long-awaited update to its Financial Reporting Manual (FRM) in late January. The updates are effective as of Dec. 31, 2022, and address several matters. This is...more
We here at SECond Opinions pride ourselves on staying current on all things SEC. But how about when in a single day, the SEC finalizes one rule and proposes four others (totaling 1,656 pages!) that could drastically change...more
12/16/2022
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Best Execution ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Insider Trading ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation NMS ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation ,
Tick Size
Recent remarks from two SEC Commissioners illustrate the broader divide about environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related disclosures and the resulting compliance costs public companies and regulated entities could...more
11/10/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Due Diligence ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Investors ,
Market Participants ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
The SEC was once again before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Aug. 29, 2022, this time in connection with the agency's approval of the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC's (Nasdaq) Board Diversity Rule (Rule). The...more
Holland & Knight Partner and former SEC Enforcement Assistant Director Scott Mascianica sat down on March 28, 2022, with Eric Werner, Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the SEC's Fort Worth Regional Office, to...more
3/28/2022
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Financial Statements ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Proposed Rules ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulation S-X ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)