STOCK Act

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are reverberating in every sector of the global economy, from life sciences to transportation, retail to manufacturing, financial services to sports and entertainment. As federal, state, and local governments attempt to blunt the pandemic’s public health and economic effects, many companies are frantically working…
Continue Reading Interacting with the Government During the Pandemic: Compliance Blind Spots for Corporations and Executives

With less than one month to go before the 2018 elections, the ground is shifting for major political donors. Developments over the last several years, and especially in the last few months, show that the rules of the road are changing with respect to many of the common election law…
Continue Reading Election Law Compliance for High Net Worth Individuals and Family Offices

Over the next nine weeks, the Trump Presidential Transition team will formulate policy and staffing recommendations for the new administration. This alert gives a broad overview of the Transition and the laws that regulate interactions with Transition team members on issues related to appointments and policy recommendations. Persons interested in…
Continue Reading Guidelines for Interacting with President-Elect Trump’s Transition Team

Companies are increasingly hiring out of the federal workforce, only to find that their new hires are restricted by “revolving door” rules that prohibit their participation in certain matters – sometimes for a limited time, sometimes permanently. New rules issued recently by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (“OGE”) serve…
Continue Reading OGE Updates Rules Governing Recruiting of Federal Employees to Private Sector Jobs

In a rare move, the Securities & Exchange Commission has assessed penalties against a political intelligence firm for failing to adopt adequate policies to prevent the flow of inside governmental information to the firm’s clients.  The enforcement action is particularly noteworthy because all the factual allegations took place in 2010, …
Continue Reading SEC Fines Should Prompt Firms Engaged in Political Intelligence To Revisit Insider Trading Policies

According to a key advocate, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA)  is preparing to renew his push for legislation aimed at expanding disclosure of political intelligence gathering.  Speaking with BNA, Craig Holman of Public Citizen said yesterday (subscription required) that bipartisan legislation will soon be introduced in both the…
Continue Reading A Renewed Push Coming for Disclosure of Political Intelligence Gathering?

In the ever-changing world of corporate political law regulation, one of the new kids on the block is the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (“STOCK Act”).  This new law was intended to apply criminal insider trading laws to trading on material, non-public information obtained from Congress, the…
Continue Reading What Does the Government Shutdown Have To Do with the STOCK Act?

Covington’s cross-disciplinary team of political lawyers and securities lawyers that has been advising clients on STOCK Act compliance and enforcement issues for more than a year today issued a new client advisory, which is available here.  The advisory outlines examples of steps that companies can take to address STOCK…
Continue Reading Covington Issues Client Advisory Regarding STOCK Act and Political Intelligence Gathering

A Wall Street Journal article says that a report published today by the Government Accountability Office “urges” the creation of a new disclosure regime for political intelligence firms.  That’s not how we read the report.

As background, when the Senate passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act…
Continue Reading Skeptical GAO Report Considers Potential “Political Intelligence” Disclosure Requirements

With near-unanimous bipartisan majorities, Congress last year passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (“STOCK”) Act in an effort to confront alleged insider trading by federal officials.  A major part of that legislation required that financial information of high-level government employees be disclosed in a searchable, sortable, and downloadable internet…
Continue Reading Congressionally Commissioned Report Recommends Shelving Key STOCK Act Provision