With respect to easing registration requirements, the State Securities Board (“Board”) had the opportunity to lead both state and federal securities regulatory bodies through rule changes for finders -- those who assist issuers in finding purchasers. The Board also issued no-action letters...

Many courts rendered opinions during the Survey period affecting the reach of the Texas Securities Act (“TSA”). The Texas Supreme Court acknowledged the TSA's reach over dealers selling from Texas to non-residents of the state, as well as over registration of securities sold. In contrast,...

Texas federal courts have continued to narrow the application of Texas securities laws. The Fifth Circuit applied the federal class action preemption test of Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (“SLUSA”) after consolidation in federal court, but permitted unconsolidated state...

Securities law opinions during this period fall into two categories. The first deals with incompetent lawyers. In Miller, a state court reinstated a cease and desist order against an issuer whose lawyer failed to object to a witness's testimony when a co-defendant's counsel did. In In re Next...

Securities law opinions under Texas law during this period can be divided into two groups. The first group deals with various fraudulent schemes targeted by the Board. The "free lunch" scam, aimed at senior investors, surfaced in Head v. State where the scammer lost the appeal because the...

Securities regulation wears two hats: Its “upstream” side governs firms in connection with their obtaining financing in the securities markets. That is, it regulates firms' — issuers' — offers and sales of securities, whether in public offerings to retail investors or in private...

In times of crisis, including the 2020-21 global pandemic, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has engaged in a type of securities regulation that few scholars have acknowledged, let alone evaluated. Specifically, during recent market crises, the SEC has adopted rules that are...

Popular zero-commission stock trading apps like Robinhood innovate in user-experience design, featuring digital engagement practices and prompts that appeal to investors’ psychology and make it easy and fun to trade. These include leaderboards of popular stock, push notifications, and visual...

We consider whether traders are more likely to commit securities violations when trading at home, a new form of working induced by the Covid pandemic. We examine data pre- and post-Covid, during which some traders were unexpectedly forced to work at home. The data indicate the presence of both a...