SEC Virtual Outreach Event
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it will host a virtual event on Wednesday, March 29, beginning at eleven in the morning and titled “Investor Advocacy Clinics: Students Fight for Investor Justice.”
This event will take place online. to 12:00 p.m. ET. During the virtual event, we will highlight the important work done by law school students who offer free legal representation and other resources to harmed investors engaged in disputes with their financial professionals. These investors may have lost money as a result of the dispute.
The virtual event, which will be hosted by the SEC Office of the Ombudsman and the Retail Strategy Task Force of the Division of Enforcement, will be livestreamed on the government website sec.gov.
After opening remarks by SEC Chair Gary Gensler, law students from investor advocacy clinics across the United States will discuss the history of the clinics, the types of legal services they offer, the makeup of mandatory broker-dealer arbitration, specific examples of cases that have been handled on behalf of harmed investors, and challenges that will affect the clinics in the future.
“Retail investors with limited incomes or with small dollar claims may not be able to hire a lawyer when they are in a dispute with a broker-dealer,” said Hane L. Kim, Chief of the SEC’s Retail Strategy Task Force. This statement was made by the SEC. Law school investor advocacy clinics help bridge the gap between institutional and individual investors by providing important pro bono legal representation to retail investors.
According to Stacy A. Puente, who serves as the acting Ombudsman for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), “The success of these investor advocacy clinics demonstrates the importance of continuing clinic funding so that more investors may benefit from their services.” “It is our sincere wish that the general public will become more aware of the vital services provided by law students and will rally behind them as a result of this program.
The outreach event is being held as a part of the SEC’s Fourth Annual 2023 Investor Advocacy Clinic Summit. The summit is a program that lasts for an entire day and is closed to the public. During this program, the Commission and SEC staff engage in conversation with clinic students about the issues that most affect their retail investor clients.
At the summit, attendees will hear remarks from SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce, Caroline Crenshaw, Mark Uyeda, and Jaime Lizárraga, as well as remarks from SEC Investor Advocate Cristina Martin Firvida and Richard Berry, Director of FINRA Dispute Resolution. In addition, SEC Investor Advocate Cristina Martin Firvida and SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga will make remarks.
Clinics from the following law schools will be present at the summit: Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Cornell University Law School, Fordham University School of Law, Howard University School of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, New York Law School, Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, St. John’s University School of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law, University of Miami School of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and University of Pittsburgh School of Legal Studies.
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