Update on Federal Regulation of Attorneys Under Financial Services Laws

摘要

During the past year, federal legislators, courts, and agencies addressed federal regulation of the conduct of attorneys relating to financial goods and services. Although each occasion involved the enactment, interpretation, or implementation of a specific federal statute, the decisions reached suggest some broader insights. Congress appears reluctant to enact federal statutes, and courts seem reluctant to interpret federal statutes, to subject to federal regulation the conduct of attorneys in connection with financial products and services, out of concern that doing so would displace, or at least create tension with, traditional state regulation of the practice of law.