House Committee on Financial Services Holds Hearing on
‘Sarbanes-Oxley: Two Years of Market and Investor Recovery’
Philadelphia, PA – July 22, 2004 – LAWFUEL – Read all today’s law announcements in PRESS RELEASESJoseph V. Del Raso, a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP and head of the law firm’s investment management (’40 Act) practice, testified before Congress on July 22, about the benefits and changes the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has brought to the capital markets and capital market participants in the United States and abroad.
Mr. Del Raso was invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services by Congressman Michael G. Oxley (R., Ohio), chairman of the Financial Services Committee and one of the authors of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The hearing was titled, “Sarbanes-Oxley: Two Years of Market and Investor Recovery.”
Mr. Del Raso was the only lawyer in private practice invited to testify for this two-year analysis of the effects of the Act. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed by President Bush on July 30, 2002, and was the most sweeping securities law reform since the original securities laws were adopted in the 1930s.
The Financial Services Committee’s press release about the hearing is available at http://financialservices.house.gov/news.asp?FormMode=release&id=534&NewsType
=1. Mr. Del Raso’s testimony is available on the House of Representatives’ Web site at http://financialservices.house.gov/media/pdf/072204jd.pdf.
Mr. Del Raso first testified before the Committee on Financial Services in March 2002, about the Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency Act of 2002 (H.R. 3763), which had been spurred by the collapse of Enron and Global Crossing and was pending before Congress. He also was the only lawyer in private practice to testify before the Financial Services Committee in that matter. Mr. Del Raso spoke on the regulatory aspects of the legislation, including the practical effect of three key
provisions: transparency of corporate disclosure, corporate governance and credit rating agencies.
Mr. Del Raso, a commercial lawyer, is a member of Pepper’s Executive Committee and head of the firm’s investment management practice. He was an attorney/adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management in the 1980s, and he concentrates his practice on corporate and securities issues, particularly matters involving securities regulation. He also counsels boards of directors on corporate governance issues.
Mr. Del Raso’s practice includes representing investment advisers, mutual funds, closed-end investment companies, unit investment trusts, hedge funds, offshore funds and publicly owned venture capital funds, usually organized as business development companies.
Pepper Hamilton LLP (www.pepperlaw.com) is a multi-practice law firm with 400 lawyers in five states and the District of Columbia. The firm provides corporate, litigation and regulatory legal services to leading businesses, governmental entities, nonprofit organizations and individuals throughout the nation and the world. The firm was founded in 1890.
