Mary Schapiro to Be Replaced By Elisse Walter as Head of SEC

President Obama has chosen Elise Walter to temporarily head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when Mary Schapiro steps down next month.  With Mary Schapiro leaving and Walter, a current commissioner stepping up, the SEC will be run by only one acting chairman and two other commissioners.  This means that the already delayed rule making for both the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act (JOBS) are likely to be further delayed.

The already taxed SEC will be headed by a small and temporary team.  Accordingly, it is the popular belief among experts that rule making will continue at a snail’s pace and that no major reform or policy changes should be expected.

Ms. Walter was originally appointed to the SEC by President George W. Bush in 2008 and has worked alongside Mary Schapiro both at the SEC and FINRA prior to both joining the SEC.  Moreover, Walter served as acting chairman after the departure

COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF TITLE I OF THE JOBS ACT AS RELATED TO EMERGING GROWTH COMPANIES

On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) into law.  The JOBS Act was passed on a bipartisan basis by overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate.  The Act seeks to remove impediments to raising capital for emerging growth public companies by relaxing disclosure, governance and accounting requirements, easing the restrictions on analyst communications and analyst participation in the public offering process, and permitting companies to “test the waters” for public offerings.   The following is an in-depth review of Title I of the JOBS Act related to Emerging Growth Companies.

Introduction – What is an Emerging Growth Company?

The JOBS Act created a new category of company: an “Emerging Growth Company” (EGC).  An EGC is defined as a company with annual gross revenues of less than $1 billion that first sells equity in a registered offering after December 8, 2011.  In addition, an EGC loses its EGC status on the earlier