Head of White-Collar and Co-Head of RISC
Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP
Kevin Harnisch is Head of White-Collar and Co-Head of Regulation, Investigations, Securities and Compliance (RISC), United States. Kevin litigates before the SEC, FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations, the Department of Justice, the CFTC, US attorney's offices, and federal courts. He handles matters relating to securities enforcement defense, internal investigations, anti-corruption issues, and represents corporations and their directors and officers, broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity funds, and investment banks.
Kevin served as a Branch Chief in the Division of Enforcement of the SEC, where he led cases regarding financial fraud, market manipulation, insider trading, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and municipal bond offerings. He has authored numerous articles, and he frequently lectures on federal securities law and anti-corruption issues. He has experience defending public companies in a wide array of SEC, DOJ and other government agency investigations. Those investigations often pertain to such issues as the accuracy of financial statements, undisclosed related party transactions, the adequacy of internal controls, the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws, responses to whistleblowers, and potential insider trading.
Recent Articles & Comments
The SEC takes hardline and aggressive views on what constitutes impeding a person's ability to communicate freely with the SEC. When negotiating confidentiality provisions in separation and settlement agreements, companies need to realize that the SEC will not hesitate to contort language in ways to suggest nefarious intentions.
Companies are now protected from private civil liability under Rule 10b-5(b) for “pure omissions.” This represents an important development, particularly given the Court’s repeated emphasis on the limits of the duty to disclose in Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5(b). (See the for a full discussion of the case.)
The jury verdict is likely to embolden the SEC to scrutinize trading by individuals in the securities of their employer’s peer companies. Without any clear limiting principle of when such trading may run afoul of the SEC’s hindsight-driven analysis, trading in peer companies now carries additional and unpredictable investigative risks.
Companies should consider clarifying their insider trading policies to explicitly prohibit trading in the securities of other companies based in…
Prior to the consolidation in the 8th Circuit of the multiple legal challenges to the Final Rules, the 5th Circuit had issued a stay. The SEC was likely anticipating that the 8th Circuit would do the same. Many companies may still be subject to the recently enacted California climate disclosure rules and various international disclosure requirements that remain in effect.