In an op-ed piece in The Hill, Partner Matthew T. Martens calls on the incoming Trump Administration and Congress to rein in the use of in-house courts by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Congress expanded the availability of these administrative proceedings under the Dodd-Frank Act, but they put defendants at a distinct disadvantage compared to the federal court system, he says.

Alternatively, Martens calls on Congress to pass the Due Process Restoration Act of 2015 (H.R. 3798), which would allow defendants involved in SEC in-house proceedings to remove their cases to federal courts. Ultimately, if the SEC is confident that it has a case, it should bring it in federal court—where defendants can present their defense to a federal judge and jury, he says. Read the full article