Pomerantz Lecture: Investor Protection in the Digital Age

Speaker
Kara M. Stein
Former Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

About the Lecture
For over 85 years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has had a vitally important role in protecting and shaping the U.S. economy. Historically, the SEC’s mission has been to protect investors; ensure fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation. The agency’s organizational structure has been based on regulating certain public company disclosures and equities markets dominated by human intermediaries, such as broker-dealers and investment advisors. However, increasingly the agency is challenged by new technologies, innovative investment products, and computers trading securities instantaneously without human intervention.
 
Does the regulatory paradigm created at the beginning of the 20th century still work for cryptoassets, distributed ledger technology, and dark pools? With more and more regulations favoring private over public markets, a majority of capital raising now takes place without SEC oversight. How does this affect the agency’s ability to protect investors and the U.S. economy going forward? What changes need to be made to help the agency perform its critical mission in the Digital Age?
 
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation and the Brooklyn Law Review

Moderator
James A. Fanto
Gerald Baylin Professor of Law
Co-Director, Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation
Brooklyn Law School

More Information
The Pomerantz Lecture honors the life and work of Abraham L. Pomerantz, a 1924 graduate of Brooklyn Law School. The lecture series focuses on topics of corporate securities law and related issues of professional responsibility. The law firm of Pomerantz LLP, of which Abraham Pomerantz was the founding partner, provides continuing support for this series.

For general inquiries regarding this event, please contact the BLS Office of Events at events@brooklaw.edu or (718) 780-7966.
 
Requests for a reasonable accommodation based on a disability to attend this event should be made to Louise Cohen, the BLS Reasonable Accommodations Coordinator, at louise.cohen@brooklaw.edu. Please make your request as soon as possible.