Laura S.Pruitt

Laura Pruitt's breadth of experience, including more than six years of service with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), gives her an in-depth perspective into financial regulatory law. She counsels on securities law and market regulation issues, with particular emphasis on broker-dealer registration and compliance, alternative trading systems (ATSs) and equity trading, derivatives, investment adviser regulation, and transfer agents, data privacy, and anti-money laundering rules.

Laura regularly helps clients determine if they should be registered as broker-dealers and assists in registering broker-dealers with the SEC, self-regulatory organizations (SROs), and the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and with obtaining approvals for changes of control and changes to business operations. She advises on compliance with Regulations NMS, SHO, and S-P, as well as SRO trading rules; advises on M&A transactions involving regulated entities; represents ATSs with required filings and issues arising under Regulation ATS; and counsels investment advisers and transfer agents on regulatory issues. She also represents clients in connection with regulatory examinations and enforcement actions.

During her tenure at the SEC, Laura worked on numerous rulemaking initiatives and interpretations, including those concerning electronic delivery of required disclosure documents, ATSs, the penny stock rules, options disclosure documents, Exchange Act Rule 14a-8, OTC derivatives dealers, rules implementing the provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, soft dollars under Exchange Act Section 28(e), and finders-related issues.

At the start of her career as a litigator in New York, Laura represented financial firms in securities class actions and hostile takeovers and represented clients in antitrust matters, among others.