Professor John Coffee of Columbia Law School speaks with WallStreetNorth’s John Metaxas (Columbia Law ’84) about the state of insider trading law. Professor Coffee has been asked to join a task force to develop proposals to update this area of the law. The task force is to be chaired by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (Columbia Law ’93). Professor Coffee explains that insider trading law is largely judicially created and has not been addressed by Congress. Recent Circuit Court decisions have created divergences among the Circuits that have not yet been addressed by the Supreme Court. Furthermore, new issues surrounding hacking and cybersecurity have emerged. The professor says the time is ripe for this blue-ribbon panel to create some standards that can be presented to Congress and/or the SEC for future adoption. Bharara has tapped former regulators, prosecutors, judges, academics and defense lawyers to serve on the panel, including The Hon. Jed S. Rakoff, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and adjunct professor at Columbia Law School. Coffee and Rakoff co-teach a popular class, Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime.
John Metaxas is an award winning broadcast journalist with three decades of experience at CBS, CNN, Bloomberg and other networks. His podcasts on the law can be listened to at WallStreetNorth.com.