Public Company Accounting Oversight Board: A Preview
AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest and the Federalist Society
Michael S. Greve, Paul S. Atkins
December 03, 2009
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On Monday, December 7, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). PCAOB, a private corporation created by the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, has authority to investigate public accounting firms, to develop auditing and ethics standards for such firms, and to impose sanctions on firms that fail to comply with PCAOB's rules. PCAOB's members are appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Court will consider whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act violates the Constitution by vesting members of PCAOB with far-reaching powers while completely stripping the president of all authority to appoint or remove those members.

AEI's John G. Searle Scholar Michael S. Greve will moderate a panel discussion on the legal and regulatory implications of the PCAOB case. Representative Tom Price (R-Ga.) will provide introductory remarks.

About the Author

 

Michael S.
Greve
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Paul S.
Atkins
  • A commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2002 to 2008, Paul Atkins is known for advocating for better transparency and consistency in the SEC's decision-making and enforcement activities, as well as for smarter regulation that considers costs and benefits. He represented the SEC at various meetings of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and international bodies, including the Transatlantic Economic Council, Transatlantic Business Dialogue, World Economic Forum (Davos), and the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum. Prior to his appointment to the SEC, he was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked on regulatory compliance, internal controls, and risk-management issues for financial services firms. A lawyer by training, Atkins also represented U.S. and foreign clients on corporate finance and business combination transactions while at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he spent a number of years in the firm's Paris office. He was admitted as conseil juridique in France in 1988. At AEI, Atkins works on issues related to U.S. and international regulation of the financial services industry.
  • Phone: 2024195214
    Email: paul.atkins@aei.org
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