5 Trends to Watch: 2023 Financial Regulatory & Compliance

Richard M. Cutshall is Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial, Regulatory and Compliance Practice and Co-Chair of the firm’s Investment Management Group. Rich has experience representing clients in a variety of investment management, corporate, and general securities matters, including the representation of mutual funds and other funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, fund independent directors, unregistered investment companies, federally registered and state registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, and an array of public and private companies. He represents clients in all aspects of investment company practice, including organizing and forming new funds, registering investment companies with the SEC, the acquisition and merger of funds, and advising clients on the day-to-day aspects of corporate governance, board and adviser fiduciary responsibility, and SEC compliance. Rich has given presentations and assists on a variety of investment management clients with their compliance with anti-money laundering laws, and has performed annual independent third party audits of several clients’ anti-money laundering policies, programs and controls. He has also assisted numerous clients in all aspects of SEC and other regulatory examinations. Rich also has experience representing clients in many industries in the sale or acquisition of businesses, formation of corporate entities, sophisticated contract negotiations, and in obtaining, renewing and renegotiating the terms of financing business operations. He routinely works with clients’ chief executive officers, chief financial officers, directors, and in-house general and assistant general counsels, including occasionally working from clients’ corporate headquarters upon request. Rich works with corporate and finance clients of all sizes, from startup family-run businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors to Fortune 500 clients. He also has experience representing clients across many industries, including health care, data management, retail product display and advertising design and manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, and real estate management and brokerage industries.

William B. Mack is a co-chair of the Financial Regulatory and Compliance Practice. He is experienced in advising companies on regulatory and compliance matters relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, the Exchange Act, Anti-Money Laundering laws and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rules. William’s practice involves all aspects of broker-dealer regulation, including Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) membership, supervision, employment, research, soft dollar arrangements, chaperoning of foreign broker-dealers, social media, use of foreign finders, anti-money laundering rules, alternative trading systems (ATS), exchanges, and market making issues. He also provides regulatory guidance to investment banking clients in connection with securities offerings and related trading issues. William advises firms in the FINRA new membership (NMA) and the continuing membership (CMA) processes. William assists firms to develop or amend their written supervisory procedures and compliance manuals. William routinely represents clients who are negotiating placement agent agreements, foreign finders agreements, clearing agreements, agreements with registered representatives and expense-sharing agreements. William assists broker-dealers and their associated persons to respond to regulatory examinations and inquiries and provides effective representation in a range of enforcement proceedings with the SEC, FINRA, NYSE, state and foreign regulatory authorities. He regularly prepares and defends witnesses in FINRA on-the-record interviews and SEC testimony. Enforcement matters have involved issues including market manipulation, supervision, customer defalcations, insider trading, anti-money laundering, distribution of unregistered securities, direct market access, market making, soft dollar arrangements, cross border trading, electronic intrusion and customer impersonation, sales practices, supervision, private placements, ETFs, indexes, and other securities products. William regularly addresses questions with respect to what activities require or are exempt from broker-dealer registration. William assists firms in obtaining guidance, interpretive letters, and no-action relief from FINRA and the SEC with respect to novel securities issues and the creation of new products and services. William also advises clients on cryptocurrency, tokenization, NFTs, DeFi structures, and digital asset exchanges and trading. Prior to joining the firm, William was a Principal Counsel for Enforcement at FINRA. Before FINRA, he was the Director of the Executive Secretariat in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. William also served as a Deputy Associate Counsel at the White House, advising primarily on appointments and investigations. Before the White House, he practiced at large firms in New York. William clerked for Judge Robert L. Carter in the Southern District of New York.