Business Law

On March 30, 2023, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the newly constituted Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), which features Professor Hilary Allen amongst the Committee Membership. Sponsored by Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, the TAC will provide “foundational knowledge about the technology, as well as the complex and nuanced impacts and implications of technology on financial markets.”

When Silicon Valley and Signature banks failed in early March 2023, government regulators rushed in to guarantee deposits and protect bank customers. Shortly after, another bank, Silvergate, collapsed amid scrutiny from regulators and a criminal investigation by the Justice Department’s fraud unit into dealings with fallen crypto giants FTX and Alameda Research. As part of the media’s coverage, Professors Hilary Allen and Gerard Comizio were each featured for their analysis in various publications.

On April 10, 2023, the Business Law Program hosted a fireside chat on the Work of the Division of Corporation Finance with Director Erik Gerding. On leave from his position as a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado (Boulder), Director Gerding joined the SEC in October 2021 and led work in legal and regulatory policy in the Division of Corporation Finance before being tapped to head the Division in January 2023.

On March 20, 2023, Professor Gerard Comizio, Associate Director of the BLP interviewed Josh Sussberg, a member of the Executive Committee and partner in the Restructuring Practice Group at Kirkland & Ellis, as part of the Business Law Program’s (BLP) Spring Webinar Series. The discussion focused on the legal, policy, and regulatory issues raised by the recent “crypto winter” and the direction of digital asset activities and regulation.

On February 23, 2023, the Honorable J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), current co-head of the Digital Works Practice at Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and author of Crypto Dad: The Fight for the Future of Money, joined the Business Law Program (BLP) for a discussion on legal, policy, and regulatory issues raised by the recent “crypto winter” and the direction of digital asset activities and regulation. The conversation was moderated by Professor Gerard Comizio, Associate Director of the BLP.