Securities/Commodities Industry Strategic Business Transactions

• We have represented major financial institutions in the rapid consolidation of the online brokerage business and acquirers and sellers concerning change of ownership or control of broker-dealers.
• We advised a major U.S. financial institution on its first move into Asia, identifying all legal and regulatory issues related to choosing one financial center over another and then to obtain necessary Asian and U.S. registrations.
• We completed an analysis of all business activity conducted in an unregulated legal entity within a global financial institution to determine whether to move businesses out of the entity, bring the entity under regulation or adopt special policies or procedures to segregate various activities.
• We have assisted broker-dealer clients in developing financing arrangements that maximize their capital structures subject to applicable regulatory constraints.
• Our lawyers regularly help create new broker-dealers and obtain all necessary regulatory approvals to enable those firms to begin business.
• In the futures area, we acted as legal counsel for the first commodity pool listed in a national securities exchange, requiring exemptions from the CFTC regarding disclosure, reporting and speculative trading limit requirements.
• We have also acted as counsel to several non-U.S. futures exchanges in obtaining regulatory exemptions and no-action letters from the CFTC regarding marketing in the U.S. and the trading of foreign stock index futures contracts in the U.S.

• Extension of Temporary Registration Rule for Municipal Advisors
  December 28, 2011
• SEC Proposes New Rule 506(c) under the Securities Act of 1933 to Implement “Bad Actor” Disqualifications under Section 926 of Dodd-Frank
  June 13, 2011

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