Following suit with many businesses in America, the SEC has announced that a sponsored conference will not be cancelled, but instead will be rescheduled as a virtual and interactive conference that is open to the public.
The conference, titled “Spotlight on Transparency: A Discussion of Secondary Market Municipal Securities Disclosure Practices,” will bring together a variety of municipal securities market participants, including issuers and investors, to discuss the state of secondary market disclosure in the municipal securities market, including COVID-19 related disclosure and potential opportunities for regulatory and industry improvement. Areas of focus during the conference will include voluntary disclosure practices of municipal issuers; buy-side perspectives of the state of secondary market disclosure; and emerging issues and trends in the municipal securities market and their potential impact on secondary market disclosure practices. The conference is now scheduled for June 16, 2020 and the will open to the public via live webcast from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET at www.sec.gov. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-121
Likewise, federal district courts around the nation have issued orders extending or temporarily suspending numerous filing deadlines and implementing new protocols for hearings to be held via remote teleconference or video conference. For example, the Northern District of Georgia has recently extended its Covid-19 response Order, until July 3, 2020, stating that the adverse conditions giving rise to the initial Covid-19 Response Order, General Order 20-01, have not yet “sufficiently resolved for the Court to return to normal operation.” That Order references CDC guidelines that promote the use of “videoconferencing or teleconferencing when possible for work-related meetings and gatherings.” https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-business-response.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fspecific-groups%2Fguidance-business-response.html
The Courts and the SEC are relying more heavily on technology and remote conferencing to mitigate the impact on productivity necessitated by CDC safety guidelines. As remote technologies continue to improve, this trend is likely to continue even as the impact of Covid-19 subsides.
About Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP focuses on complex civil litigation, including securities, antitrust, wage and hour and consumer class actions as well as shareholder derivative and merger and transactional litigation. The firm is headquartered in New York, and maintains offices in California, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Since its founding in 1995, Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP has served as lead or co-lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases which ultimately provided significant recoveries to investors, direct purchasers, consumers and employees.
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About Robert W. Killorin
Robert W. Killorin is a Partner in the Atlanta office of Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP. His practice is focused on shareholder merger and securities litigation. Mr. Killorin is an accomplished trial lawyer with over twenty years of experience in civil litigation. Prior to joining Faruqi & Faruqi, Mr. Killorin was a partner at the firm of Chitwood Harley Harnes, LLP where he specialized in complex securities litigation. Mr. Killorin has represented numerous individual plaintiffs, as well as institutional pension funds, corporations and individual investors in courts around the country. He has obtained significant recoveries, including the following securities class actions: In re FireEye, Inc. Sec. Litig., No. 14-266866 ($10 million settlement pending); In re ArthroCare Sec. Litig. No. 08-0574 (W.D. Tex.) ($74 million); In re Maxim Integrated Prod. Sec. Litig., No. 08-0832 (N.D.Cal.) ($173 million); In re TyCom Ltd. Sec. Litig., MDL No. 02-1335 (D.N.H.)($79 million); and In re Providian Fin. Corp. Sec. Litig., No. 01-3952 (N.D. Cal.). Mr. Killorin has obtained significant relief for shareholders in merger suits, including the following: In re The Coca-Cola Company Shareholder Litigation, No. 10-182035 (Fulton County Superior Ct.).Mr. Killorin authored "Preparing Clients to Testify" – Chapter 19 of Civil Trial Practice, Winning Techniques of Successful Trial Attorneys, Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company (2000), and has written articles and lectured on various legal topics. He is listed in Who's Who in American Law and is an AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated attorney. Mr. Killorin obtained his undergraduate degree from Duke University (B.A., cum laude, 1980) and his law degree from the University of Georgia (J.D. 1983) where he was on the national mock trial team and a national moot court team. He is licensed to practice law in Georgia and is admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the United States District Courts for Middle and Northern Districts of Georgia.
Robert W. Killorin
Partner at Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP
Georgia office
Tel: (404) 847-0617
Fax: (404) 506-9534
E-mail: rkillorin@faruqilaw.com
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