Maintaining high standards for conduct in the money management industry helps lawyers and compliance professionals keep their clients in check with the industry’s complex legal requirements, clients that include mutual fund companies and other asset managers helping Americans save for their future or the future of their children.
Rutgers Law School Professor Arthur Laby has published, with his co-author, The Regulation of Money Managers: Mutual Funds and Advisers, Third Edition Set (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business).
According to Laby, co-director of the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law and Governance, because of the magnitude of the asset management industry in the United States a treatise of this scope is more important than ever.
“Mutual funds alone hold over $18 trillion in assets, up from $4.7 trillion in 1997,” says the Rutgers Law professor, who teaches courses on securities regulation and corporate law. “There are over 16,000 funds registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And there are over 11,000 registered investment managers. The industry is highly regulated and this treatise is a comprehensive overview of the industry and its regulation.”
As the industry is constantly evolving and developing new products, this latest edition in a four-volume format intended for investment management lawyers and compliance professionals, includes three new chapters on exchange traded funds, compliance, and the extraterritorial regulation of funds and advisers.
“The three new chapters reflect significant recent changes in the asset management industry,” notes Laby, who served for nearly ten years on the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, most recently as Assistant General Counsel. “Exchange traded funds are now an important part of the asset management landscape. Compliance has exploded as its own discipline in recent years. And extraterritoriality is of increasing concern to non-U.S. domiciled investment managers who seek to reach U.S. investors.””
First published nearly 40 years ago by Tamar Frankel, and a second edition released 15 years ago, the treatise has been a highly influential resource used by the Securities and Exchange Commission staff and lawyers in law firms and in-house at investment management firms.
“We recognize its influence in numerous ways, such as by the large number of legal materials that have cited the treatise when discussing investment management matters” adds Laby.
Rutgers Law students benefit from Laby’s involvement in the treatise because several of them serve as research assistants helping to identify legal developments for the next annual update. Through the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law and Governance, which has a presence at Rutgers Law School’s locations in both Camden and Newark, research fellows also can write about money managers, using the treatise as a resource and launch pad.
“I teach classes that require research papers and students can work closely with me to choose a topic covered by the treatise. Their research might lead to changes in the treatise itself, with recognition of their contribution.”