Davis Polk Recruit Ex-SEC Aide
Headline Legal News
Law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell recruited the Securities andExchange Commission's former enforcement chief and another formerhigh-level government lawyer to join its white-collar defense group,part of an effort to expand its Washington practice.
Linda Chatman Thomsen, who left the SEC earlier this year, and RaulYanes, former staff secretary to President George W. Bush, are joiningthe law firm as partners.
Both had worked at Davis Polk in New York before joining the government.
The duo will be the first litigators in the 11-person Washington office in years.
FormerSEC Commissioner Annette Nazareth and Robert Colby, a former deputydirector of the SEC's trading and markets division, also recentlyjoined the firm's Washington office to focus on financial regulatoryissues.
Davis Polk clients, including large financialinstitutions, are closely entangled with the government as it haspumped billions of dollars into financial rescue plans. Congress isstudying new regulation of financial markets.
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Texas Adopts Statewide Texting-While-Driving Ban
Effective September 1, 2017, Texas will become the 47th state to pass a statewide ban on texting while driving. Governor Abbott’s signing of House Bill 62 is an effort to unify Texas under a uniform ban and remedy the “patchwork quilt of regulations that dictate driving practices in Texas.”
The bill specifically prohibits drivers from reading, writing, or sending an electronic message on a device unless the vehicle is stopped. That includes texting and emailing. It does not, however, prohibit dialing a number to call someone, talking on the phone using a hands-free device, or using the phone’s GPS system.
Violations would be punishable by a fine ranging from $25 to $99, to be set by each municipality. Although penalties could rise to as much as $200 for repeat offenders.
Studies have found that a driver’s reaction time is half as much when a driver is distracted by sending or reading a text message. According to state officials, in 2015 more than 105,000 traffic accidents in Texas involved distracted driving, leading to at least 476 fatalities.