Marcus Featured in Bond Buyer Article on SEC Enforcement Approach

Partner Kathleen Marcus was featured in The Bond Buyer’s front-page article, “A Cooperative Stance Can Help Issuers When SEC Sniffs Around,” following her panel remarks at the National Association of Bond Lawyers’ annual conference.

Drawing on her experience as a former SEC senior counsel and as co-chair of Stradling’s securities litigation and enforcement practice, Marcus explained that firms under SEC scrutiny must act quickly and collaboratively. “An SEC investigation is not a litigation. You want an absolutely cooperative posture and you want lawyers that are going to dig in very early on”, she said.  “Your lawyers need to be in front of the SEC staff as far as the learning curve because that’s how they can offer value.”

Marcus emphasized that waiting for subpoenas is a mistake. “You want to be in there, reducing scope, managing costs, talking to the staff, figuring out what their priorities are and then being as useful as possible to them, because they’re going to find out anyway.”

She also addressed concerns about reduced staffing at the agency, noting that while the number of enforcement actions has dropped, investigations remain active: “They are continuing to do the work, they’re just doing it a lot leaner than they used to.”