Legal Risk Management Tips

As part of its “Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Report” released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) last month, the SEC discussed how “first-of-their-kind” and “high impact” cases highlighted a strong year of enforcement actions.  According to the report, the SEC ended the fiscal year of 2015 (which for the SEC concludes on September 30th) having filed a record 807 enforcement actions, representing an increase of seven percent (7%) over the prior year’s number of enforcement actions.  Of the 807 enforcement actions, a record 507 were independent actions for violations of federal securities laws and 300 were either actions against issuers who were delinquent in making required filings with the SEC, or administrative proceedings seeking bars against individuals based on criminal convictions, civil injunctions, or other orders.

With the new-year comes new-rules.  Literally hundreds[1] of new laws will go into effect in the state of California during the month of January, with even more becoming effective later in 2015.  This article provides an overview of some of the new corporate laws affecting businesses.  While this article is geared towards California businesses, several other states have substantially similar laws in place, or are in the process of enacting such laws.  Further, out-of-state companies that operate in California are often subject to the rules of the state, so it is important to be aware of how such rules may impact your business.