California Corporate & Securities Law

In April, I reported on SB 54 (Skinner), a bill that would have required institutional Investors, securities and real estate brokers, and others to report on the diversity status of "founding teams".  At the time, I criticized the bill as being "so...

The internet facilitates crime in the same way it facilitates legitimate business - it lowers transaction costs. With the internet, a fraudster can steal someone's identity and then use that purloined identity to reach thousands of potential victims...

The California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation's Broker-Dealer/Investment Adviser (BDIA) program licenses and regulates investment advisers, investment adviser representatives, broker-dealers, and broker-dealer agents. Over the last...

As has been previously noted, California's Governor recently signed  AB 1864 (2020 Cal. Stats. Ch. 157) into law (aka the "California Consumer Financial Protection Law"). Broadly speaking, this new law will bestow new regulatory authority on the...

Last week, the California Department of Business Oversight emailed a "Formal Examination Demand: Response Required" to investment advisers stating that the Department is conducting a "coordinated survey of registered firms and their business...

I teach securities regulation at the University of California, Irvine and so have a toe hold in academia. In my view, law schools are placed on the "isthmus of a middle state". As such, they must continually wrestle with the question of whether they...

Section 25235 of the California Corporations Code declares that is unlawful for an investment adviser to engage in a number of specified activities, including employing "any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud any client or prospective client"....

The California Department of Business Oversight recently issued its annual Broker-Dealer/Investment Adviser report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017. The DBO reports that it had 3,808 investment adviser firms licensed at year end. These firms...

Last week, I cautioned the students in my Securities Regulation class that while it can be helpful to review the SEC filings of other registrants, one should never assume that they are correct. A few days later, I noticed that the following...