Jim Benjamin’s Remarks on SEC Investigations Published in Thomson Reuters’s TrustLaw

Jim Benjamin, head of Akin Gump’s securities enforcement and litigation practice, is quoted in the publication TrustLaw, based on remarks he made at a New York City Bar Association event on how to respond to SEC investigations.

Benjamin noted that issuers need to establish and follow “regularized procedures” to address complaints and document their receipt, investigation, outcome and follow-up. They must also make a reasonable inquiry into uncorroborated statements by interested parties who lack personal knowledge of what may have happened.

With regard to how firms should act, Benjamin said they need to be very careful in conducting investigations and avoid browbeating employees in order to clear an executive or the company, or to close the inquiry as early and as quietly as possible. He added that firms should give appropriate warnings when conducting interviews that they are being done by and on behalf of the issuer, not to clear the employee.