Welcome to Compliance Hot Spots, our weekly snapshot on white-collar, regulatory and compliance news and trends. Today, we detail tensions between the SEC and the defense bar underscored by a recent speech by enforcement director Gurbir Grewal. Plus, Preet Bharara makes the move to Wilmer and Jones Day counsel former Attorney General William Barr in his Jan. 6 testimony. Please get in touch with tips and feedback. Contact me at [email protected] and @AGoudsward on Twitter.

Gurbir S. Grewal, Gurbir S. Grewal speaks at Seton Hall Law School. Photo: Carmen Natale/ALM

SEC Clashes with Defense Lawyers Over Delay Tactics

More than a decade ago, Robert Khuzami, then the head of the SEC enforcement division, gave a speech to an audience of white-collar lawyers lamenting "questionable tactics by defense lawyers in SEC investigations."

The list of infractions was long: Delayed document productions, representing multiple witnesses that appear to have adverse interests, lawyers signaling to witnesses during interviews, and witnesses who "cannot recall" even basic facts at issue.

Last month, at a similar forum in California, the current SEC enforcement director, Gurbir Grewal, had a message for the defense bar: It's still happening.