Block

June 07, 2007 | Corporate Counsel

Despite persistent criticism from top lawmakers and advocacy groups, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox is standing by his agency's decision to make small businesses begin complying this summer with the most controversial provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law. He said that, by phasing in compliance with the internal-controls audit standards for smaller public companies, regulators would gain a sense of how bigger companies fared before applying the internal-controls rules to smaller companies.

By Donna Block

4 minute read

June 22, 2005 | Law.com

Two recent reports claim that the burden of complying with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act grew still heavier in the past year, especially for smaller companies. Foley & Lardner's report on its third annual SOX compliance survey said the annual "cost of being public" since SOX was enacted had increased an average of 233 percent by last year for smaller companies. A second report, by the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., also suggests the burden of SOX compliance falls more heavily on smaller companies.

By Donna Block

6 minute read

March 30, 2004 | Law.com

The body that sets standards for the accounting industry is primed to do battle with Capitol Hill.

By Donna Block

6 minute read

March 10, 2005 | Law.com

Technology executives called on the SEC this week to delay implementing a controversial rule requiring companies to deduct the cost of employee stock options from profits. Lobby group TechNet said it is essential that the SEC provide companies with guidelines that include a "realistic" way of valuing such options. The views of the group's membership, heavy with top executives from the biggest tech companies, are expected to wield strong influence with regulators and lawmakers.

By Donna Block

5 minute read

December 15, 2005 | Law.com

Congressional concerns about rising energy prices could pose the greatest risk to ConocoPhillips Co. winning federal antirust approval for its purchase of Burlington Resources, one of North America's biggest independent energy exploration and production companies. The $35.6 billion merger, which will create the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., comes just as consumers are receiving the first of what are expected to be uncommonly expensive home heating bills.

By Bill McConnell and Donna Block

5 minute read

April 25, 2005 | Law.com

The House of Representatives approved a wide-ranging energy bill Thursday that would do away with a 70-year-old law that restricts mergers and acquisitions in the power-utility sector. Besides repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the bill opens up an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling and will shield makers of a controversial gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether from product liability lawsuits. MTBE has been found to contaminate groundwater.

By Donna Block

3 minute read

September 25, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley said Sept. 19 that the much-maligned Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has been "implemented overzealously," but insisted there should be no legislative rewrite of the legislation he co-authored four years ago. The Ohio Republican, who is retiring at the end of the year, said at a committee hearing last week that he believes that, overall, SOX "has been a success." But there's some disagreement from others, including SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

By Donna Block

4 minute read

March 07, 2007 | Law.com

Stock exchanges and electronic trading platforms are contending with a new regime of trading regulations known as Regulation NMS. Aimed at increasing the efficiency and transparency of the stock trading venues, the trading phase of Reg NMS went live Monday. The rules require exchanges and electronic networks to implement procedures designed to prevent so-called trade-throughs -- where a trade is executed at a price lower than a protected quote displayed by another market.

By Donna Block

5 minute read

March 21, 2007 | New York Law Journal

Kenneth M. Block and Jeffrey B. Steiner, members of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner, write that at higher court levels, recent decisions represent a positive trend for judicial acceptance of the MERS system. Currently in New York, MERS mortgages remain not only eligible for recording but also lawful and enforceable in the state's courts. Florida's appellate courts seem to be moving in the same direction. But decisions in other states, particularly at the trial court level, have had mixed results.

By Kenneth M. Block and Jeffrey B. Steiner

10 minute read

February 25, 2005 | Law.com

Does Blockbuster Inc.'s offer for Hollywood Entertainment Corp. violate antitrust law, as the target of the hostile bid contends? We may never know. That's because, for antitrust enforcers, assessing whether the deal weakens video industry competition may be subordinate to weighing the potential damage of losing another high-profile merger challenge. Meanwhile, Hollywood Entertainment shareholders must decide whether to bless Movie Gallery's bid or gamble on Blockbuster's richer offer.

By Donna Block

5 minute read