Mr. Lewis states, “There’s a strong argument that the gravy-train days of Wall Street may never replicate themselves again. It’s going to be very hard to make an embarrassingly large amount of money at a bank that’s a publicly traded company compared to a private-equity fund or a hedge fund.

The article discusses the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s recent disciplinary actions against Brandon Tompson and Patricia Collantes, former Citigroup managers in California, after they failed to supervise a sales assistant who stole $750,000 from client’s accounts. Mr. Lewis states that becoming a branch managers comes with great risk and by electing o become a branch manager, brokers are effectively signing up to be responsible for every action of every employee, all day long.

You can read the full article online here.

(shown from left): The Trial Attorneys of New Jersey's 2011-2012 officers: Craig Hilliard, Diana Manning, Edwin Matthews, John North, Michael Marone, Jim Batsides, Harry McEnroe and Paul O'Connor.

Mr. Onder and Mr. Kvitka state that generally, mall owners may impose restrictions against commercial solicitations and restrictions on the place, time and manner of noncommercial speech activities. However, any commercial restriction should be less onerous than the restrictions noted in the cases cited. Additionally, a mall owner should not adopt any such restrictions unless it can justify that each requirement is necessary in order to protect the mall owner’s commercial interests.
 

Mr. Schwartz joins host Maiken Scott as they discuss a common issue facing many families after the death of a loved one: do we have to pay bill collectors looking for money after our family member has passed away? Mr. Schwartz discusses special considerations offered after the loss of a spouse, child and parent.

**Updated September 28, 2011 - 8:40 AM** In case you missed last night's edition of Newsworks Tonight with Mr. Schwartz, you can listen to the full program online here.

Mr. Byrne focused his presentation on relevant ethics-related definitions, guidelines, laws and authorities.  He also discussed various trade organization and other relevant ethical guidelines and standards.  Mr. Byrne was joined in the presentation by Irwin Cohen, A. Michael Tyler Realty Corp., Peter Von Simon, New Beford Management, and Stephen Beer, CPA, Czarnoski & Beer.

 

The article discusses the continiuing legal battle AllianceBernstein is engaged in with financial advisors who recently left their firm and took clients with them. The firm filed suit against eight former brokers, claiming that they violated their non-solicitation agreements after they left without giving sufficient notice and taking their client lists and other confidential information with them.

Mr. Lewis comments on AllianceBernstein’s choice not to partake in the Protocol for Broker recruiting. He states, “The reason they have not joined is because they are concerned that it will make it easier for people to leave AllianceBernstein. They don’t want to join the protocol right now because there’s a great concern that there might more people who would want to leave than join, and in that situation, the protocol would not be a good mechanism for them to use.”

 

Recently, Ashton Kutcher’s comments regarding several internet based social media companies has come under scrutiny after Kutcher authored an article for Details magazine in which he praises Tinychat, Fourquare, Arbnb and several other companies, while failing to disclose the fact that he is an investor in the companies. Now the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission are questioning if this move warrants a federal investigation.

In the article, Mr. Lieberman states, “He's getting close to the line, if not crossing it, in terms of SEC regulations on insider trading."

Mr. Lewis states that, “lawyers for the former Lehman brokers may try to argue ‘impossibility’ as a defense against the firm's note claims.  It's impossible to do your job if it's no longer there." 

You can read the full article online here.