Lawyers remain sceptical over SEC administrative proceedings

Jordan A. Thomas sheds light on the criticism surrounding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to use administrative proceedings

But former SEC assistant director Jordan Thomas said critics cannot have it both ways. “The SEC is stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “People criticize it for not doing more enforcement and then when they use administrative proceedings to help increase their level of activity they are criticized for using a perceived unfair process.”

Thomas, now at [prior firm] in New York, said the criticisms about limited discovery fail to apply to companies. “For companies this is less of an issue because they hire their own lawyers to do an internal investigation so they are finding evidence at the same time – if not before – the SEC does,” he said.