Supreme Court to Consider ALJs

Fight Brews Over Cost of SEC Climate-Change Rules

The cost of proposed rules on climate disclosure is emerging as a key battleground as businesses and politicians fight over a plan to require companies to tally their impact on the environment and the risks they face from climate change.

The Securities and Exchange Commission estimates the plan will raise the cost to businesses to comply with its disclosure rules from $3.9 billion to $10.2 billion. The leap in expense equates to an ongoing additional cost of $420,000 a year on average for a publicly listed small company and $530,000 a year for a bigger firm, the SEC said.

SEC Official Decries Delay Tactics Used by Some Defense Lawyers

Although Mr. Grewal said he welcomed zealous advocacy, he added that he was frequently hearing from SEC staff about behavior that crossed the line to what he called “gamesmanship.”

“Too often, we see defense counsel—sometimes even including [SEC enforcement division] alums—engage in conduct that seems to have little purpose other than to delay our investigations,” Mr. Grewal said Thursday at the Securities Enforcement Forum West 2022, which was held in East Palo Alto, Calif.

California law requiring women on corporate boards struck down

A California law that required companies primarily based in the state to have women on their corporate boards has been ruled unconstitutional by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.

In a 23-page ruling filed Friday, Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis found the state could not prove that the “use of a gender-based classification was necessary to boost California’s economy, improve opportunities for women in the workplace, and protect California taxpayers, public employees, pensions and retirees.”

Binance Bulks Up on Lawyers Amid Crypto Market Meltdown

Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is looking to hire more than 30 lawyers as the industry is in flux and its billionaire founder’s fortune shrinks.

Most of the in-house legal and compliance counsel positions are listed on an online jobs board for Binance, which operates a remote workforce. The openings are predominantly regional data privacy and regulatory counsel roles. More than a dozen Binance compliance and government affairs positions are also posted online.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear SEC bid to avoid challenge to in-house judges

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the Securities and Exchange Commission’s bid to block a challenge to the constitutionality of its in-house tribunal brought by a Texas accountant who the agency punished after faulting her audits of publicly traded companies.

The justices took up the SEC’s appeal of a lower court ruling that revived certified public accountant Michelle Cochran’s challenge. The lower court rejected the agency’s argument that under a U.S. law called the Securities Exchange Act Cochran could not contest the constitutionality of the tribunal’s judges in federal court before the end of the SEC’s administrative enforcement proceeding against her.