Off to the SEC Conference

I am headed to our nation’s capital (I expect the cowboy hat concessions to be replaced with sneaker and basketball displays) for tomorrow’s annual SEC small business capital conference. Typically SEC Chairman Cox leads it off and I assume he will again. It is a great opportunity to have access to senior SEC staffers that are often hard to buttonhole.

I hope that in their discussion of the changes to Rule 144 there is discussion of 144(i) and maybe, even, our 9-law firm request for rulemaking to eliminate the “evergreen” requirement to stay current in filings to access Rule 144 if a company ever was a shell company. I am disappointed that last week’s PLI securities regulation institute included a detailed discussion of the Rule 144 changes with no mention of 144(i) at all. Division of Corporation Finance Chief Counsel Tom Kim was on the panel as well. I hope there will be at least a mention of the subject at tomorrow’s conference.

While the conference is always interesting, we assume that Chairman Cox will be leaving soon (there has not been any announcement yet). And since Corporation Finance Director John White is leaving at the end of the year, next year’s conference will be quite interesting indeed. But for now we are still in 2008 and maybe some actions are still possible before leadership changes at the SEC.

Leave a comment