Miller & Chevalier has added bench strength on the regulatory compliance side by hiring a lawyer from a competing firm.
Erin Sweeney, who was previously a member of Dickstein Shapiro’s corporate and finance practice, is now of counsel in Miller & Chevalier’s office in Washington. Sweeney worked at the Department of Labor from 2003 to 2007, helping to draft regulations affecting investment managers and mutual funds. She drafted the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which requires companies to scrutinize and assess the effectiveness of protections for both employers and employees. As a lawyer, Sweeney represents employers in a wide range of regulatory matters, with a particular focus on Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance. Sweeney often deals with sections of the act relating to executive compensation. In Sweeney’s view, people have come to understand these portions of the act a bit better in recent years, although expert guidance on certain provisions is still needed.
“The parts of Sarbanes-Oxley that I deal with day in and day out are the plan blackout period notices and the securities trading restrictions on a public company's directors and executive officers during plan blackout periods,” Sweeney told IFLR1000.
“I think that people do, by and large, understand the blackout provisions at this point. When Sarbanes-Oxley was originally enacted, there was quite a bit of concern about whether the different types of split-dollar insurance products might constitute a prohibited loan. I know that my clients were very concerned about that issue. I think that now, where people have ultimately netted out is to move away from split-dollar arrangements – particularly collateral assignment arrangements – because of concern that the products may constitute a loan under Sarbanes-Oxley,” she added.
In the early days of the act, much of the public’s concern revolved around a lack of guidance as to what could constitute a loan. Companies tended to move away from split dollar insurance agreements, and ask how they could take a fresh look at the statute and put together an executive compensation package that would retain talent without departing from the law, Sweeney explained.
“Right after the statute was enacted, every company that had a split-dollar arrangement was on the edge of their seats, listening for any piece of information from regulators, any guidance from websites or speeches, trying to understand whether the arrangements constituted a prohibited loan. Ultimately, in the marketplace, in response to Sarbanes-Oxley, executive packages have been structured differently to retain executives, but without the potential concern that there might be a loan prohibited by Sarbanes-Oxley,” she added.
Sweeney holds a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law, an M.A. from American University School of International Service, and a B.S. and B.A. from Ohio University.