Tag: Shadow SEC

Securities

Is the SEC facing a death by 1,000 cuts?

Bloomberg reports that staff from the Department of Government Efficiency is currently at the SEC, according to communications to SEC staff, who were “instructed to treat them as internal employees.” Bloomberg also reports that the “SEC has designated an internal team to work with DOGE,”  including “the offices of the chief operating officer, the general counsel, human resources and enforcement.” According to the article, about 10% of the SEC’s workforce (arounds 500 staff members) have already ”accepted the government-wide buyout and deferred-resignation offers. The agency also intends to eliminate the leases for its offices in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and the General Services Administration has also explored ending the Chicago office’s lease. The most-senior positions at regional offices have also been cut, though the individuals in those roles aren’t being forced out.” The Shadow SEC fear that they are “watching the SEC face a death by 1,000 cuts.”

/ March 31, 2025
administrative lawSecurities

Shadow SEC argues for retention of SEC independence

At the end of last year, in this post on the CLS Blue Sky Blog, two leading authorities on securities law, Professors John C. Coffee, Jr. and Joel Seligman, made some predictions about SEC regulation under the new Administration. (See this PubCo post.) In light of their concerns about the potential changes to the SEC under the new Administration, they announced their intent to form a “Shadow SEC,” composed of acknowledged experts in securities regulation, intended to encourage debate through the presentation of “cogent and factual arguments”: “Such a shadow body—more scholarly than political—might frame issues in fuller detail and offer less drastic alternatives.” Although “[c]larity and objectivity will not always win,” they suggested, “sometimes they might. That is enough to justify the effort.”  In Shadow SEC: The Value of an Independent SEC, the Shadow SEC takes on the February 18 Executive Order, which sought to rein in the independence of “independent” federal regulatory agencies, such as the SEC, by ensuring that they all operate under the President’s authority and supervision. (See this PubCo post.) Not surprisingly, they had some concerns.

/ March 11, 2025