‘Judge, Jury and Executioner’: How the SEC is finally leveling the playing field on its dreaded ‘Wells Notice’ enforcement process

As Securities and Exchange Commission defense counsel, we can attest first-hand to the dread our clients experience when we inform them that we have received a “Wells Notice” from the Division of Enforcement at the SEC. The Wells Notice, which serves as the civil equivalent of a criminal grand jury target letter, informs the recipients that the Division is prepared to recommend to the Commissioners that they be sued. The putative defendants then learn that they have only two weeks to submit a...