August 2010

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 to Wednesday, August 11, 2010

In the past year, Congress debated whether to overhaul regulation of financial institutions and eliminate mandatory arbitration of consumer and securities disputes, FINRA tweaked several key arbitration rules and practices to counter relentless scrutiny of the fairness of its forum, and the Supreme Court reaffirmed its interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act as codifying a strong national policy favoring arbitration. How have these competing forces changed the landscape of securities arbitration in the past year? How will these forces converge in the near future? This year's Securities Arbitration program will attempt to answer these questions and others, with panels of FINRA Dispute Resolution's directors, staff and arbitrators, experienced attorneys representing customers, brokers and firms, and regulators and academics who grapple with these issues. In particular, this year the program will feature an expanded series of panels featuring FINRA's Director of Arbitration and his staff. We will encourage interactive presentations. What you will learn: Recent and proposed changes in FINRA Dispute Resolution's arbitration rules and practices, The impact of significant rule changes on motions to dismiss and expungement requests, How the discovery process in FINRA arbitrations may be changing, How to select and challenge arbitrators, including an examination of the Pubic Arbitrator Pilot Program, developments of importance to arbitrators, Case law updates in the areas of broker-dealer regulation and Supreme court arbitration jurisprudence, Nuanced perspectives from both customer and industry attorneys, Predictions from academics and regulators regarding the future of mandatory securities arbitration.