Digital Commons Network^™

Confidential Informants In Private Litigation: Balancing Interests In Anonymity And Disclosure, Ethan D. Wohl

ExpressO

Heightened pleading standards and limits on discovery in private securities fraud actions make confidential informants crucial in many cases. While courts have widely recognized the importance of confidential informants and the need to protect them from retaliation, they have not applied consistent standards for how informants must be identified in pleadings, and have failed to take into account substantial bodies of relevant caselaw when deciding whether to require that informants’ names be disclosed in discovery.

This article offers a framework for when and how confidential informants should be identified, taking into account the competing interests in anonymity and disclosure. It …

Sarbanes-Oxley: Section 404 And The Death Of The Small Public Company, M Gregory Cutler

ExpressO

With the approaching implementation of § 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, there is widespread criticism of the enormous costs of complying with the section. Although § 404 arguably improves investor confidence by making the financial condition of a company more transparent, businesses argue that the costs are simply too high. The question remains as to whether high costs are a good enough reason to expose investors to the type of fraud Sarbanes-Oxley protects, or whether there are public policy reasons to ease the burdens.

This note examines the effects of § 404 on small businesses, and argues that public policy …

Attorneys As Gatekeepers: Sec Actions Against Lawyers In The Age Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Lewis D. Lowenfels, Alan R. Bromberg, Michael J. Sullivan

ExpressO

Following the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on July 30, 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission has substantially increased the number of actions it has initiated against lawyers. And a substantial number of these recent SEC actions against counsel to public companies (both internal and external) have highlighted the SEC’s resolve to hold lawyers accountable for not performing adequately their SEC-conceived role as “gatekeepers” to prevent fraud and other violations of the federal securities laws. This “gatekeeper” concept has been and is being implemented through SEC actions addressing a wide variety of alleged transgressions in a wide diversity of factual …