One avenue to gain experience in business and corporate law is via Miami Law's Investor Rights Clinic. Students from the Clinic presented at a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission event, "Safeguarding the Golden Years: Avoiding Financial Fraud," recently.
Third-year law students Michelle Adams, Alfredo Dally, Peter Sitaras, and second-years Austin Booth, Nicolas Geraci, and Rayaan Hossain joined SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who delivered opening remarks at the 2022 SEC Investor Advocacy Clinic Summit and outreach event hosted by the SEC Office of the Investor Advocate and the Retail Strategy Task Force. Panelists from the SEC, the American Association of Retired Persons, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority participated in a moderated discussion and question-and-answer session on senior financial fraud and caregiver challenges. More than 500 audience members live-streamed the event.
"The law school clinics participating in this summit are important partners in our work," Gensler said. "To date, clinics like the ones you are involved with have formally represented hundreds of investors and recovered millions of dollars on their behalf."
Miami Law's Investor Rights Clinic, one of only two law schools invited to participate in the public event, shared lessons learned from cases involving caregivers for senior victims of investment fraud. The live-streamed event focused on helping to educate older adults and their caregivers on the unique challenges of investing in an increasingly complicated market.
Under the leadership of Acting Director Scott Eichhorn, the clinic is staffed by second and third-year law students who represent under-served investors in securities arbitration claims against their brokers before FINRA. This self-regulatory organization administers the largest forum for arbitration of securities claims in the United States. Arbitration is the most widely used means of resolving disputes in the securities industry.
"Many of us will become caretakers at some point in our lives," said Eichhorn. "At the clinic, we often work with caretakers in cases involving senior investment fraud. The students drew on these stories to educate the audience."
The outreach event was part of the SEC's 2022 Investor Advocacy Clinic Summit, a daylong event that allows the commission and staff of the commission to hear directly from the law school investor advocacy clinics on financial fraud issues affecting their retail investor clients.
The summit featured presentations from SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce, Allison Herren Lee, and Caroline Crenshaw; Rick Fleming, SEC Investor Advocate; Gerri Walsh, president of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. The law school investor advocacy clinics from Cardozo, Cornell, Fordham, Howard, New York Law, Northwestern, Pace, St. John's, Seton Hall, and the University of Pittsburgh were also present.
According to the AARP, more than one in five Americans are caregivers. The Miami Law students' presentation and panel targeted caregivers for seniors, an especially vulnerable demographic for investment fraud.
"During our preparation for this event, we reviewed several cases where our own former clients could have suffered less severe financial losses had a caretaker been actively involved in their investments before anything went wrong," said Booth. "By sharing these stories, it is my hope that caretakers begin to realize the important role they have in helping elder investors. By implementing some of the advice we shared, caretakers can prevent elder financial abuse from happening in the first place and ensure those they care about can live the final years of their lives to the fullest."
Miami Law Clinic Students Meet with Director of FINRA Arbitration
Just two days earlier, third-year law student Gabriela Dubrocq, Matthew Guarnaccia, and second-years Michael Newell, Jesse Hodges, Hillary Gabriele, Miriam Castillo, met with Richard Berry, director of FINRA dispute resolution services, and Nicole Haynes, associate director of recruitment and training, about FINRA's process for arbitrator appointment in claims filed by investors against brokers or brokerage firms.
The students had the opportunity to learn about FINRA's current initiatives impacting investor arbitration, including efforts to recruit more diverse FINRA arbitrators focusing on women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ arbitrators. The students presented their research on FINRA arbitrator diversity statistics and their suggestions for targeted campaigns to recruit more diverse and younger arbitrator candidates.
"It was a unique opportunity for the clinic students to share their arbitrator recruitment ideas directly with FINRA and to get feedback on what work is currently being done in this area. Since most of the clinic's cases are heard by just one arbitrator, the composition of the pool of candidates can make or break an investor's case," said Adjunct Professor Melanie Cherdack, who supervised the project.
"All of our students should be proud of their advocacy work this semester," Eichhorn said. "We're also very grateful for the attention and support of our investor protection concerns at the highest levels of the SEC and FINRA."
Read more about Miami Law's Investor Rights Clinic
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