SECURITIES INDUSTRY CONFERENCE

This week I attended a meeting here in St Louis of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Compliance & Legal Division. It was well worth the price of admission. Folks from the SEC, SIFMA, FINRA and NASAA were present, as well as representatives of dozens of organizations, including Wells Fargo Advisiors, Stifel Nicolaus (one of our clients), Edward Jones, Scottrade, etc. A series of panels covered a myriad of regulatory and national and local enforcement and compliance topics. The stress on the markets the last year, coupled with seminal events such as the ARS market meltdown and Madoff scandal, has generated a storm of both regulatory, legislative, and enforcement activity. Our firm handles the defense of government enforcement actions (as trial attorneys and former regulators) as well as both the prosecution and defense of customer claims against brokers and advisors. Finally, the Obama white paper was issued the very morning of the conference. An interesting and productive day to say the least!