PIABA PRESIDENT PRESSES SEC COMMITTEE TO STUDY AND FIX MANDATORY ARBITRATION

PIABA PRESIDENT SPEAKS SEC INVESTOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

President Adam Gana Featured as Expert Panelist on “Examining the Use of Mandatory Arbitration Clauses by Registered Investment Advisers.”

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 10, 2024 – The president of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA), Adam Gana, spoke today at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee Meeting during a panel discussion examining the use of mandatory arbitration clauses by Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs). The panel explored the issue from the perspectives of various stakeholders and address the use of mandatory arbitration clauses by Registered Investment Advisers and FINRA registered broker-dealers.

Commissioned by Congress in 2022, the June 2023 report from the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate and the Office of the Ombuds studied the problematic practice of forced arbitration for aggrieved investors seeking restitution for improper investment practices by their RIA.

Adam Gana, Partner at Gana Weinstein LLP and President of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA), said: “contractual arbitration in the investment advisory space is a disaster for main street investors and the advisory community at large. The SEC must study the issue and make significant changes to create an arbitration system that is fair and equitable and does not price investors out of justice.”

In February, a coalition of investor advocacy groups, including PIABA, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), Americans for Financial Reform, Better Markets, Consumer Federation of America, the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), and Public Citizen, formally announced a new campaign aimed at reforming Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) rules for registered investor advisers (RIA).

Benjamin Edwards an associate professor of Law at the University of Nevada’s William S. Boyd School of Law and a member of PIABA’s board of directors, spoke on a separate panel focusing on the mainstreaming of alternative assets and new avenues for advisor misconduct.

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ABOUT PIABA

Public Investors Advocate Bar Association is an international, not-for-profit, voluntary bar association of lawyers who represent claimants in securities and commodities arbitration proceedings and securities litigation. The mission of PIABA is to promote the interests of the public investor in securities and commodities arbitration, by seeking to protect such investors from abuses in the arbitration process, by seeking to make securities arbitration as just and fair as systemically possible and by educating investors concerning their rights. For more information, go to www.piaba.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Alex Frank at (703) 276-3264, afrank@hastingsgroupmedia.com.

Hear what our members say about PIABA.

See how PIABA has helped protect others in investment disputes within the securities industry.

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Meyer Wilson

Courtney M. Werning, Esq. | Principal

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STEINER & LIBO

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Gana Weinstein

Adam J. Gana | Managing Partner

“PIABA is the greatest bar association I have had the privilege of being a part of. PIABA and its membership have been instrumental in my growth and development as a securities litigation attorney in representing and fighting for investors. As a member of PIABA you will find many attorneys across the country who are willing to help you from sharing practice tips to arguments. There is no organization doing more good for the investing public than PIABA.”

Michael C. Bixby

Bixby Law PLLC | Founder & Managing Attorney