Welcome to Compliance Hot Spots, our briefing on compliance, enforcement and government affairs. The FTC on Thursday kicks off its two-day look at antitrust in the changing marketplace—and we've spotlighted some of the Big Law partners, law professors and current and former regulators who are set to speak. Plus: there's a big new story out on a Goldman Sachs whistleblower, the Blockchain Association forms in D.C., Google tries to limit the reach of “right to be forgotten,” and a new report takes a snapshot of Trump's deregulatory agenda.

As always thanks for reading—and please do send feedback. I appreciate hearing from you about what's on your plate—observations, trends, new clients. I'm at [email protected] and 202-828-0315, or follow me on Twitter @cryanbarber.

|

Who's Going to the FTC's Big Antitrust Hearing?

Top antitrust regulators, advocates, private counsel and academics will convene Thursday in Washington for the start of the Federal Trade Commission's two-day hearing addressing the scope of anti-competition in the modern age. Panels are assessing market concentration and competition, the regulation of consumer data, vertical mergers and more.

Numerous Big Law antitrust partners are set to speak at the event—including Deborah Garza of Covington & Burling; Janet McDavid of Hogan Lovells; former FTC Chairman Tim Muris, now senior counsel at Sidley Austin. James Rill of Baker Botts, Alysa Hutnik of Kelley Drye & Warren and Daniel Crane of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are also set to speak Thursday.

A discussion on the regulation of consumer data will feature FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen, who's awaiting confirmation to a seat on the U.S. Court o Federal Claims, and Georgetown law professor David Vladeck, a former director of the commission's consumer protection bureau.

FTC Chairman Joe Simons in June announced the hearings as a way to take a fresh look at how the agency is keeping up with a changing marketplace.

“Twenty years ago, I think there was a pretty broad consensus about what antitrust enforcement should look like from both sides of the aisle. It wasn't completely congruent between the Democrats and the Republicans, but it was pretty close. Now the consensus … people are challenging the consensus. So that's what causes us to want to have hearings like this,” Simons told reporters.

In advance of the hearings, the first since 1995, the New York Times served up a profile of Lina Khan who has “reframed decades of monopoly law.”

|

Compliance Reads: Goldman Whistleblower; Google's EU Fight; 'Silicon Valley Needs Regulation'

>> Goldman whistleblower. As David Solomon prepares to take the helm at Goldman Sachs, the New York Times has a stunning report on a partner at the investment bank who left after raising concerns about unethical conduct. The investment banker-turned-whistleblower, James Katzman, complained about the bank's efforts to hire a customer's child and colleagues' repeated attempts to obtain and then share confidential client information. Known as a “boy scout” for his close following of the rules, Katzman expected the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson to investigate his allegations and relay them to Goldman's board. Instead, Goldman's general counsel took over the inquiry and Solomon urged Katzman to move past his complaints. “Mr. Katzman's complaints suggest that, a decade after Goldman's actions during the financial crisis severely tarnished its reputation, the firm continues to struggle with cultural problems,” the New York Times reports.

>> Google's EU fight. “National laws used to stop at the border. In cyberspace, they increasingly stretch around the world, as regulators in Europe, the U.S. and Canada have started asserting legal authority over the internet across country lines.” The Wall Street Journal spotlights Google's appeal of an EU order that would extend the “right to be forgotten” globally. Politico has more here on the appeal.

Google, meanwhile, has some more local issues to deal with: the Arizona attorney general has reportedly opened an investigation into location privacy practices. The investigation comes after an AP investigation last month concluded: “Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.”

>> Silicon exec: Don't fear regulation. “These are polarized times. Yet for business leaders across the political spectrum, there is one area of troubling consensus: a contempt for government's ability to regulate effectively,” Marcus Ryu, chief executive of Guidewire Solutions, writes at the NYT. He continues: “Like most chief executives, I sometimes chafe under the rules that govern a public company. But I have also come to recognize the limits of corporate self-governance and to appreciate the regulatory environment we have.”

>> Deregulatory check-up. A new Brookings Institution report spotlights the Trump administration's deregulatory push and concludes the story is one of inaction. “Trump administration agencies issued very few new rules that imposed regulatory costs. Most such rules were required by statute or were otherwise routine. On the flipside, Trump agencies also did relatively little deregulation outside of delaying and repealing rules issued late in the Obama administration. On balance, then, the picture is one of inaction. The Trump administration has halted the growth of regulation that imposes costs but so far has left the existing regulatory framework largely in place.”

>> Big prosecution win on ICOs. “In what is believed to be the first criminal case of its kind, a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, refused to dismiss the case of a man charged with promoting digital currencies backed by investments in real estate and diamonds that prosecutors said didn't exist,” Bloomberg reports. Read the decision here.

|

Who Got the Work

>> Major League Baseball's hired Hogan Lovells partner Lisa Ellman to lobby on drones. Ellman, who leads the firm's unmanned aircraft systems team, will lobby for the league on “issues related to unmanned aircraft systems,” according to the new registration. Major League Baseball in 2016 named former Baker & Hostetler lawyer Josh Alkin vice president of government relations, leading the league's new Washington office. “MLB is working with lawmakers and policymakers to develop new policies, procedures and approaches that continue to ensure fan safety,” Alkin said in an email.

>> Welcome, Blockchain Association. “Tech veterans and a number of high-profile cryptocurrency companies on Tuesday said they are forming the Blockchain Association, the first fully fledged lobbying group in Washington representing entrepreneurs and investors who are building off of the technology behind bitcoin,” according to The Washington Post. Mike Lempres, Coinbase's chief legal and risk officer, said: “We're not companies looking to game the system, but trying to develop a legal and regulatory system that'll stand the test of time.”

>> Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Amelia Cottrell helped Crypto Asset Management LP resolve one of the Securities and Exchange Commission's first enforcement actions against a hedge fund involving virtual currencies or digital tokes. Crypto Asset Management was accused by regulators of falsely advertising itself as the first regulated fund in the United States focused on cryptocurrency assets. According to the SEC, the hedge fund's assets peaked at $37 million in December, at the height of valuations for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Crypto Asset Management and its founder, Timothy Enneking, agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty to resolve allegations that they illegal sold stakes in the fund.

>> A federal judge in San Jose has approved an $80 million deal Yahoo Inc. reached to settle investor claims that the company failed to disclose four data breaches, my colleague Ross Todd reports. Morrison & Foerster partner Jordan Eth represented the company in the securities case. Class counsel was led by Glancy Prongay & Murray and Pomerantz LLP. The settlement, signed off on Friday, provides $14.4 million in attorneys fees for the plaintiffs' attorneys.

>> Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck shareholder Russell Sullivan in Washington, a former staff director at the Senate Finance Committee, is on new lobby registrations for a host of companies, including Starbucks, Exelon, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Wolters Kluwer and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Sullivan recently jumped from McGuireWoods, which he joined in 2013 after leaving the U.S. Senate.

>> Wiley Rein partner Jan Baran got an advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission allowing Microsoft to offer “election-sensitive customers” enhanced account security for free—and on a non-partisan basis. “The commission concludes that the provision of such services is permissible and would not result in the making of a prohibited in-kind contribution,” the commission wrote in an advisory opinion dated Sept. 11. Baran, in a brief interview, said the FEC's “promptness and unanimity reflects the importance the commission places in providing guidance and approval in this important area.”

|

Notable Moves & More

>> Former FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny is heading to Covington & Burling as a partner, my colleague Ryan Lovelace reports over at the NLJ. McSweeny was an Obama-appointee to the commission, and she served until April. McSweeny joins the firm's antitrust and competition law and data privacy and cybersecurity practice groups. Deborah Garza, Covington's antitrust practice co-chair, said McSweeny “has developed relationships with and [has] an understanding of other enforcement agencies around the world.”

>> John Pitts, a former deputy assistant director of intergovernmental affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has joined the fintech startup Plaid as a policy counsel, according to his LinkedIn bio. Before joining the CFPB in 2012, Pitts was a managing associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. The hire comes a year after Plaid brought on Brandis Anderson, a former CFPB enforcement attorney, as a product and regulatory counsel.

>> “The general counsel of one of the world's leading cryptocurrency companies has departed her post. Ripple confirmed to Quartz that Brynly Llyr is no longer with the payment and remittance network,” according to a report at Quartz. Llyr will be general counsel to the crypto payments startup Celo. More at Corporate Counsel: 8 Attorneys Who Made the Leap to In-House Gigs in Crypto, Blockchain.

>> María González Calvet, formerly General Electric's executive counsel for global investigations, has joined the Washington office of Ropes & Gray as a partner, the firm announced. The firm said Calvet, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, helped General Electric “protect and defend the company in Latin America.” Alex Rene, co-chair of the anti-corruption and international risk practice and managing partner of the Washington office, said in a statement: “Roughly half of all FCPA investigations in 2017 had a Latin America component, so effectively navigating the risks posed by this region is increasingly critical to our clients in the U.S. and abroad.”

>> Anita Bandy and Carolyn Welshhans have been named associate directors in the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency said. The SEC said Bandy and Welshhans will each supervise about 40 attorneys, paralegals and staff. Bandy had been an assistant director in enforcement since 2013. Welshhans has served since 2015 as an assistant director in the enforcement division's market abuse unit.

>> Becky Wood, the former chief counsel at the Food and Drug Administration, is returning to Sidley Austin LLP, where she will lead the firm's food, drug, and medical device regulatory practice and its FDA group alongside fellow partner Coleen Klasmeier. Before joining the FDA in 2017, Wood had spent more than a decade as a Sidley Austin partner. “Based on both her long experience in the industry and her role as the lead legal advisor to the FDA during a transformational period, Becky will enhance our ability to offer deep strategic insight into the complex regulatory issues facing our clients and to defend our clients' conduct when challenged,” Klasmeier said. “Becky's perspective on the rapidly changing regulatory environment is unique.”

Got a new move announcement or other tips? I'm at [email protected] and 202-828-0315.