On this episode of the inSecurities podcast, Chris and Kurt sit down with Cliff Kirsch, a partner at Eversheds Sutherland and Chair of the PLI program “The SEC at 90: A Celebration and Retrospective.” Cliff shares some of his key takeaways from this half-day PLI program aimed at celebrating the past, examining the present, and looking to the future of the SEC. Among other topics, Chris, Kurt, and Cliff discuss SEC Commissioner Peirce’s call for a retroactive look at rules on the books and a refocusing on the SEC’s core competencies. You can watch “The SEC at 90” on-demand on the PLI website: https://www.pli.edu/programs/the-sec-at-90?t=ondemand&tCode=GTZ4_ONDMD

On this episode of the inSecurities podcast, Chris and Kurt discuss recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that will have profound impacts for the SEC and other agencies. First, our co-hosts discuss the Jarkesy case, which held that defendants in SEC enforcement proceedings have a Constitutional right to have fraud cases heard by a jury. Next, Chris and Kurt discuss Loper Bright, which overrules the decades-old Chevron doctrine, ending the presumption that courts must rely on agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

This episode of the inSecurities podcast features a roundtable with pro bono experts who discuss the need for law school clinics that represent retail investors in FINRA arbitrations. Nicole Iannarone, Associate Professor of Law at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, and Christine Lazaro, Professor of Clinical Legal Education and Director of the Securities Arbitration Clinic at St. John’s University School of Law, join the podcast, along with Alicia Aiken, Director of the Danu Center’s Confidentiality Institute and host of PLI’s podcast Pursuing Justice: The Pro Bono Files, who steps in as a special guest co-host. Keep an eye out for a forthcoming episode of Pursuing Justice that will feature interviews with past clinic participants.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler joins the inSecurities podcast to talk about how he and the Commission engage with the public, his efforts to build trust in the US capital markets, and the role of the SEC in protecting investors. Chair Gensler also discusses the SEC’s role with respect to cryptocurrencies (or “digital asset securities”) and tells us why US investors should be wary of “AI washing.”

Erik Hotmire, Co-Founder of the consulting firm Watermark Strategies, joins the inSecurities podcast to discuss key characteristics of successful corporate affairs strategies. Erik tells Chris and Kurt how he draws on his experience as former spokesperson and Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the SEC in developing bespoke strategies for clients, and how the game has changed from a stakeholder engagement perspective.

Alex Platt, an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, joins the inSecurities podcast to discuss his latest research paper, which documents the involvement of activist short sellers in the SEC whistleblower bounty program. Professor Platt explains why this phenomenon may undermine the SEC’s goal of rooting out and deterring misconduct, and he proposes modest tweaks to the whistleblower rules to address the issue. On the episode, Chris and Kurt also chat with Professor Platt about his past whistleblower research, including his papers “The Whistleblower Industrial Complex” and “Going Dark(er): The SEC Whistleblower Program’s Least Transparent Annual Report in Agency History.”

Award-winning journalist Diana Henriques has spent her career covering financial markets, white collar crime, and market regulation. She joins Kurt and Chris to discuss her recent book, Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR’s Fight to Regulate American Capitalism, which chronicles the decade following the 1929 stock market crash, and the men in government and in the markets who fought to provide the framework for financial regulation that we still utilize today.

In April 2024, the SEC prevailed on insider trading charges against Matthew Panuwat, relying for the first time on a theory known as “shadow trading.” Nick Morgan of ICAN and Steve Cazares of Orrick join the inSecurities Podcast to discuss an amicus brief ICAN submitted in the Panuwat litigation, policy arguments against the “shadow trading” theory of liability, and the future of “shadow trading” cases for the SEC and DOJ.

George Wilson, Director of PLI’s SEC Institute (SECI), joins the inSecurities podcast — for a record ninth time! — to discuss highlights from the recent SECI Quarterly Newsletter (sign up HERE), including the SEC’s final climate disclosure and SPAC accounting rules, and recent developments at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Check out this recap of PLI’s program, the SEC Speaks in 2024, which Chris attended in-person in Washington DC. He provides his thoughts on the topics discussed by SEC staff as a part of the program, as well as conducting some on-the-street interviews with attendees and PLI staff. You can learn more about the program at the link below, as well as see the printed copy of SEC Commissioner remarks at the SEC website. https://www.pli.edu/programs/the-sec-speaks?t=live https://www.sec.gov/news/speeches-statements