Supreme Court Delivers One More Punch to Agencies with Corner Post Decision

Supreme Court’s Agency Power Rulings Could Change Regulatory Landscape For Years to Come

In one of the final actions of its term, the court on Monday issued a ruling allowing newly created businesses to contest even decades-old regulations, including those that may have beat back prior claims of government overreach.

The ruling, which stemmed from a challenge by a North Dakota truck stop named Corner Post to the Federal Reserve’s 13-year-old cap on debit-card fees, follows opinions by the court’s conservative majority eliminating a presumptive deference to regulators’ interpretation of ambiguous statutes and curtailing the use of administrative courts.

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The decision “allows essentially anyone to form a business and then take an agency to court for rules that had been in place for decades,” said Cary Coglianese, an administrative law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Apple ex-lawyer ordered to pay $1.15 million SEC fine for insider trading

The former senior Apple lawyer who avoided prison time after pleading guilty to insider trading must pay a $1.15 million fine in a related U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil case, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

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The proposed SEC fine was triple Levoff’s estimated $384,400 profit or avoided losses on six trades.

In court papers, Levoff called the fine unnecessary, saying he had been punished enough and made no effort to hide his stress-induced trading, which he labeled “self-sabotage.”

But the judge said Levoff, a Stanford University law school graduate, knew his trading was wrong, and could handle the fine given his estimated $13 million net worth.

US law firms smell opportunity as Supreme Court guts agency powers

Law firms are capitalizing on client uncertainty sparked by a flurry of new U.S. Supreme Court rulings that favored opponents of federal agency powers, even as lawyers themselves differ on the decisions’ immediate and long-term effects.

Within hours of the decisions, major U.S. law firms began sending out client-focused emails and webinar invitations to discuss the cases and showcase their expertise, a marketing strategy that often follows major legal developments.

Supreme Court’s Jarkesy Ruling Upends SEC Enforcement Practices

The US Supreme Court’s ruling in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy significantly shifts power from agencies to courts. It foreshadows a revolution in the structure of federal enforcement in the coming decade.

For many regulatory programs, this change will mean no enforcement at all for statutes that don’t allow the agencies to sue in court. Some people will applaud this change, because an Article III judge presumably has no policy agenda like the administrative adjudicators do.

Yet the decision also brings real costs. Litigation takes longer and is more expensive than administrative adjudication, so there will inevitably be fewer cases—and that is for the agencies that can bring enforcement lawsuits in courts, an authority Congress hasn’t granted across the board.

Binance Executive Tigran Gambaryan’s Health Deteriorates in Jail as Nigeria Trial Proceeds

Nigeria’s money laundering trial against Binance and two executives was adjourned until July 5 following the cross-examination on Monday of the first witness from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission.

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“Tigran’s health continues to deteriorate in detention and he complained of numbness in his foot as well as back pain,” a statement from the family’s spokesperson said. “He has had double pneumonia and malaria whilst in prison.”

“As I have stated many times before and as the evidence in court is showing, Tigran has never been a decision-maker at Binance, and there is no justification for his continued detention,” Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, said. “It is time for the Nigerian authorities to do the right thing and release my innocent husband.”

Which Law Firms Are On Course to be in the Global Elite?

In the world of Big Law, there’s one club everyone wants to join: the global elite.

Whether or not it will ever come to pass is debatable, but many are convinced a breakaway group of law firms will one day dominate the industry and the buzz around it is especially intense in London circles, where many U.K. firms fear being left behind.

They fear not having the same buying power as larger rivals for partners or junior lawyers, not being able to invest the same amount of money in tech and real estate, and not being able to offer such comprehensive services to an increasingly international client base.

That’s why much of the conversation among senior lawyers at major firms revolves around the necessity of becoming part of this leading pack.