Category Archives: PLI Press

Treatise Update – Investment Adviser Regulation (Third Edition)

Investment Adviser Regulation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Compliance and the Law (Third Edition) is an essential resource for investment advisers, securities attorneys, compliance personnel, and federal and state regulators. This treatise guides practitioners through the maze of statutory, SEC, and state standards impacting investment advisers, as well as provides advice on the practical aspects of building a practice. It also clarifies key status issues that determine registration and disclosure duties as well as liability exposure.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 14, Privacy of Client Financial Information: An Overview, includes updated discussions regarding the FTC’s amendments to the Safeguards Rule,; the NYDFS’s finalization of amendments to the Cybersecurity Regulation that require additional governance obligations regarding the Chief Information Security Officer ’s role and resources; and the Bermuda Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which applies to organizations that use personal information in Bermuda.
  • Chapter 42, Mutual Funds, covers the most recent reporting requirements affecting mutual funds.
  • Chapter 43, Managed Advisory Accounts & Wrap Fee Programs, discusses the SEC’s Division of Examinations April 2024 risk alert that highlights the Division staff’s observations regarding compliance with the Marketing Rule.
  • Chapter 54, Municipal Advisor Regulation, discusses enforcement actions related to municipal advisors regarding both their regulatory obligations and their fiduciary obligations. In addition, this update provides further analysis of the interrelationship between municipal advisory activities and other professional activities undertaken by municipal advisor firms. The discussion of applicable MSRB and SEC rules is also updated to reflect more recent rulemaking by the MSRB.
  • Chapter 64, Blockchain and Digital Assets, updated to cover regulatory developments involving digital securities and commodities.

The Table of Authorities and Index have also been updated for this release.

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Treatise Update: Copyright Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (Second Edition)

Copyright Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (Second Edition) provides up-to-date analysis of court decisions and practical advice for the protection of copyrights. This book helps readers to understand the scope of copyright owners’ exclusive rights, prove copyright infringement and obtain appropriate remedies, renew, restore, and recapture copyrights, know when Internet-related activities constitute copyright infringement, find out who owns a work for clearance purposes, exploit unique defenses and statutory safe harbors that exist in the digital environment, get insurance against litigation risks arising from possible infringing uses, and to know when and how to register copyrights with the Copyright Office.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • The Ninth Circuit’s ruling that, for choreography, courts look at whether the “coherent whole” is protectable and will consider unique elements beyond individual poses, such as footwork; movement of the limbs, hands, fingers, and head; tempo; body shapes and positions; and transitions (see section 2:5.4).
  • The D.C. Circuit’s holding that the copyright deposit requirement constituted an unconstitutional taking of property (see section 5:2.1).
  • The Supreme Court’s decision in Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy resolving a circuit split and holding that a plaintiff may recover damages for any “timely claim” (see sections 11:7.3 and 12:2).
  • The Tenth Circuit’s decision that repeatedly ignoring takedown requests and mocking the author of the allegedly infringed material were sufficient to plausibly allege material contribution to direct copyright infringement (see section 11:8.3[B]).

The Table of Authorities has also been updated.

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PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

Treatise Update: Hedge Fund Regulation (Second Edition)

Hedge Fund Regulation (Second Edition) provides a comprehensive understanding of hedge funds, covering their history, investment strategies, legal, and compliance considerations. Updated regularly, the treatise guides practitioners in structuring funds, raising capital, complying with regulations, managing portfolios, and adhering to reporting obligations with regulatory agencies.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 8, Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, has been revised to cover the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s adoption of rules subjecting investment advisers to anti-money laundering/countering of financing of terrorism programs and related reporting requirements.
  • Chapter 9, Privacy Regulations, has been updated to address the SEC’s amendments to Regulation S-P, designed to enhance data security and breach notification obligations.
  • Chapter 13, Compliance, has beenrevised to address the implications of the vacating of the Private Fund Adviser Rules by the Fifth Circuit.
  • Chapter 14, Books and Records, discusses of records requirements, including discussion of recent “off channel” communications enforcement actions and the latest revisions to Form PF.
  • Chapter 19, Pensions, analyzes the Department of Labor’s recent amendments to Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 84-14, the QPAM Exemption.
  • Chapter 26, Derivatives Markets Participants, has been revised to address recent changes to the CFTC’s capital requirements for swap dealers, the SEC’s added protections for Chief Compliance Officers of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants, and SEC Rule 9j-1 that targets fraud and manipulation in the context of security-based swaps.

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New Title! Climate Change, Sustainable Investments, and Social Governance: Law and Compliance

PLI Press is proud to announce the publication of the new practice guide Climate Change, Sustainable Investments, and Social Governance: Law and Compliance.

This brand-new treatise comprehensively analyzes the regulatory landscape for financial products and institutions with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) considerations. It covers ESG-themed financial products and investments, discussing their significance as market opportunities, institutional investor expectations, compliance requirements, risk management components, and elements of corporate values. The book is divided into sections that explores climate change risk and related issues for financial institutions, banks, and the insurance industry, ESG investing and financial products, ESG’s impact on shareholders and SEC enforcement, examinations, and the development of effective compliance programs for corporate issuers and advisers. The final section focuses on special topics, reviewing the legal landscape related to human rights in business and advising on proactive measures for businesses to comply with their duties and lead in responsible practices.

Notably, Climate Change, Sustainable Investments, and Social Governance: Law and Compliance covers the following important topics:

  • Climate Change Risks and Bank Regulation in the United States (See Chapter 3)
  • ESG Investing (See Chapter 10)
  • Sustainable Finance (See Chapter 12)
  • ESG and Shareholder Engagement (See Chapter 14)
  • ESG and SEC Enforcement and Exams (See Chapter 16)
  • Human Rights in the Business Legal Landscape (See Chapter 19)

We are excited to share this new title with you!

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Treatise Update: Broker-Dealer Regulation (Second Edition)

Broker-Dealer Regulation (Second Edition) covers the latest laws and regulations governing broker-dealers and provides a comprehensive and practical overview of the many requirements of this highly regulated area. This book instructs on how brokerage firms can satisfy SEC/SRO standards, with detailed coverage of registration reporting and record-keeping rules, suitability and best execution standards, ways of minimizing liability in the event of legal lapses, by documenting good-faith compliance efforts and the implementation of a tailor-made compliance program that can help detect and prevent illegal conduct within the firm. It’s filled with practical suggestions on how to best comply with requirements in such areas as electronic trading, safeguarding customer information, trading desk activities and business continuity planning.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 5, Broker-Dealer and Associated Person Registration, covers FINRA’s Maintaining Qualifications Program.
  • Chapter 17, Research and Research Analysts, covers the EU Listing Act, which removes the market capitalization threshold and allows for the bundling of payments for research and execution services, if certain requirements are met.
  • Chapter 18, Electronic Trading, reviews the 2024 Amendments to Rule 605’s disclosure requirements.
  • Chapter 49, Investment Banking Compliance, reviews the SEC’s amendments, adopted on May 16, 2024, to Reg S-P; and the SEC’s proposed rules that would apply to the use of any “covered technology” by broker-dealers or investment advisers in “investor interactions,” and would require that such registrants establish policies and procedures to determine if the use of any such tool results in a conflict of interest that places the interests of the registrant ahead of the interests of investors, and to eliminate or neutralize that conflict.
  • Chapter 52, Private Banking and Wealth Management, discusses the May 2024 SEC and FinCEN Joint Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will expand CIP obligations for SEC-Registered Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting Advisers by requiring them to establish, document, and maintain written CIP procedures.
  • Chapter 53, Blockchain and Digital Assets, has been updated to cover regulatory developments involving digital securities and commodities.

The Table of Authorities and Index have also been updated.

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PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

Treatise Update: Patent Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (Fourth Edition)

Patent Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (Fourth Edition)is a valuable guide for patent specialists and other intellectual property lawyers, corporate counsel and executives, inventors, and general practitioners representing inventors looking to gain knowledge of the legal framework governing patents. This includes developments under the America Invents Act, federal regulations and court decisions, the widely accepted four-step test used by the courts to determine an invention’s patentability, the various tests used to indicate direct infringement and other patent violations and drafting techniques used to prepare the full variety of documents, including specifications and claims.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Section 1:7.1, Utility patent subject matter eligibility, discusses several Federal Circuit cases on section 101 eligibility including Weisner v. Google LLC, International Business Machines Corp. v. Zillow Group, Inc., and American Axle & Manufacturing v. Neapco Holdings.
  • Section 5:3.6, Statutory bars—disclosure, explores Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., in which the Federal Circuit considered whether prior disclosure of a genus of compounds and their pharmaceutically acceptable salts was sufficient to anticipate, under 35 U.S.C. §102, a claim directed to a species of a specific salt of a specific compound having a specific stoichiometric ratio.
  • Section 6:10.1, Unitary European patent, is a new section that reviews the unitary European patent and the now operative Unified Patent Court.
  • Section 24:6.1, Inter partes review, covers a Federal Circuit case considering whether applicant-admitted prior art could form the basis of invalidity in an IPR, and another case clarifying the scope of IPR estoppel under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2).

The Tables of Authorities and Index have also been updated.

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Treatise Update: Corporate Whistleblowing in the Sarbanes-Oxley/Dodd-Frank Era (Second Edition)

Corporate Whistleblowing in the Sarbanes-Oxley/Dodd-Frank Era (Second Edition)dives into the federal and state regulations and agency rules addressing whistleblowers and international investigations. It provides practical advice on minimizing the risk and damage of whistleblower complaints against employers and conducting effective internal investigations. Practitioners and business professionals dealing with SOX Act and Dodd-Frank whistleblower actions will find valuable insights into dynamic case law and evolving rules that shape the rights of whistleblowers and the responsibilities of their employers. Readers will gain thorough coverage of key topics, including the elements of a prima facie case, employer defenses, compliance and crisis communication strategies, whistleblower protections, bounty provisions, and more.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Expanded section 2:1.3, Employees Outside of the United States, explores Daramola v. Oracle America, Inc., in which the Ninth Circuit held that in the case of a Canadian citizen working in Canada for the Canadian subsidiary of a publicly traded U.S. parent company, any domestic (that is, U.S.) duties the employee performed were incidental to his foreign employment and, therefore, the application of SOX under these circumstances would not be domestic in nature.
  • Revised section 5:5, Causation, explains Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, in which the Supreme Court held, that while a whistleblower bringing a claim under SOX must prove that the protected activity was a contributing factor in the unfavorable personnel action, a whistleblower need not also prove that the employer acted with retaliatory intent.
  • New chapter 7, EU Whistleblower Protection Directive, examines the Whistleblower Protection Directive 2019/1937 adopted by the EU to enhance the enforcement of EU law and policies in specific areas by laying down common minimum standards providing for a high level of protection of persons reporting breaches of EU law.

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