LEGISLATION AND PUBLIC POLICY

Clients who are engaged in activities subject to substantial government regulation have a need to understand how proposed legislation and regulations may affect their business.  We also recognize that regulation not only comes from written statutes and rules but also from unwritten interpretations and policies of the administering agencies.

We seek to educate our clients on the legislative and regulatory process at both the federal and state level.  Moreover, we have the capability to analyze proposed legislation and regulations not only in context of existing statues but also how it may affect our clients’ business.

Sometimes legislative or regulatory proposals are drafted in a manner which could have unintended consequences.  We are able to identify these potential problems and work on our clients’ behalf toward a positive resolution.

Leading this practice is Firm Partner Philip Rutledge who has over 25 years experience in the Legislative and Executive Branches of Pennsylvania State Government.  As Chief Counsel to the Pennsylvania Securities Commission, he authored over 15 separate pieces of legislation and numerous regulations.  He is intimately familiar with the legislative and regulatory process in Pennsylvania, including working with legislative standing committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission.

When in government, he testified numerous times before committees and task forces of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and testified as a securities expert before the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. 

At the federal level, Mr. Rutledge often represented the states’ perspective before Congress.  In that regard, he was instrumental in working with Congressional staff in shaping various provisions of significant federal securities-related legislation, including the National Securities Markets Improvement Act of 1996, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act of 1999 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

We offer clients