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SEC Division of Examinations 2026 Priorities

By Arthur Don, Steven M. Malina, Richard M. Cutshall, Tracy S. Combs, William Mack, Rachel Edwards & Douglas W. Hathaway on December 4, 2025
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SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Division of Examinations (Division) announced its 2026 examination priorities (Exam Priorities) on Nov. 17, 2025. These priorities address areas of concern based on recent examinations, new or pending rules, or developments in the industry. They often forecast referrals to the Division of Enforcement if material rule violations or deficiencies are uncovered. The announcement for 2026 focuses on six different types of market participants subject to SEC regulation or oversight, as well as four risk areas impacting some market participants.

Link to Click here to read the full GT Alert. Click here to read the full GT Alert.

Photo of Arthur Don Arthur Don

Arthur Don has more than 45 years of experience representing public and private investment companies, money managers and investment advisers, mutual funds and their independent directors, private investment funds (including private equity funds and real estate funds), and broker-dealers. His practice focuses on…

Arthur Don has more than 45 years of experience representing public and private investment companies, money managers and investment advisers, mutual funds and their independent directors, private investment funds (including private equity funds and real estate funds), and broker-dealers. His practice focuses on regulatory structuring and compliance matters, governance, and sophisticated securities matters and transactions.

Throughout his career, Arthur has represented some of the nation’s most well-known and successful investment managers. His decades-long experience in the investment management arena enables him to provide bespoke counseling and strategies.

In addition, Arthur has represented issuers and underwriters in numerous public offerings. He frequently advises on independent director fiduciary duties and compliance policy issues and the implementation of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles.

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Photo of Steven M. Malina Steven M. Malina

Steven M. Malina, a former Senior Attorney in the SEC’s enforcement branch, focuses his practice on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters with representations of financial services industry clients, hedge fund matters, and securities and general commercial litigation. He represents officers, directors,

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Steven M. Malina, a former Senior Attorney in the SEC’s enforcement branch, focuses his practice on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters with representations of financial services industry clients, hedge fund matters, and securities and general commercial litigation. He represents officers, directors, broker-dealers, investment advisors, commercial banks, investment banks, investment management firms, and public issuers in investigations and disciplinary proceedings initiated by the SEC, CFTC, FINRA, FDIC, NYSE, CBOE, CME, and state regulators. In addition, Steve represents clients in related investor class-action, derivative, and other litigation and arbitration. He has also conducted internal investigations on behalf of publicly traded companies and represented committees and executive officers in internal investigations. Steve has represented brokerage firms and their management in customer-initiated cases, and injunction and arbitration proceedings.

Prior to entering private practice, Steve served as First Vice President and Deputy Regional Counsel for a large financial corporation and was a Senior Attorney in the Branch of Enforcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Photo of Richard M. Cutshall Richard M. Cutshall

Richard M. Cutshall is Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial, Regulatory and Compliance Practice, Co-Chair of the firm’s Private Funds Group, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Investment Management Group. Rich has experience representing clients in a variety of investment management, general securities, and corporate

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Richard M. Cutshall is Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial, Regulatory and Compliance Practice, Co-Chair of the firm’s Private Funds Group, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Investment Management Group. Rich has experience representing clients in a variety of investment management, general securities, and corporate matters, including the representation of mutual funds, ETFs, and other funds registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940; fund and ETF independent directors; unregistered investment funds; federally registered, state registered, and federally and state exempt investment advisers; broker-dealers; and an array of public and private companies.

Rich represents investment adviser clients at all stages of their life cycle, from concept and formation through registration, daily operation through wind-down and exiting the business, including representing investment adviser clients on both the buy-side and sell-side in M&A transactions. He also represents clients in all aspects of investment company practice, including organizing and forming new funds and ETFs, registering mutual funds and ETFs with the SEC, and the acquisition and merger of public funds.

In the course of representing investment advisers and public and private funds, Rich advises Greenberg Traurig’s clients on all aspects of securities regulatory compliance, particularly including new and existing SEC rules; SEC examination, regulatory, and investigative initiatives and sweeps; the SEC’s proposal, adoption, and implementation of new regulations, such as the recently rewritten investment adviser marketing rule; and finding compliance solutions related to the regulatory scheme applicable to investment advisers and investment funds, including implementing both novel and long-standing SEC regulatory guidance and interpretations. He also advises clients on the day-to-day aspects of corporate governance, board and adviser fiduciary responsibility, and SEC compliance, as well as assisting clients in all aspects of SEC and other regulatory examinations.

Rich has given presentations on and assists a variety of investment management clients with their compliance with anti-money laundering laws, and has performed annual independent third party audits of several clients’ anti-money laundering policies, programs and controls.

Rich also has experience representing clients in many industries in the sale or acquisition of businesses, formation of corporate entities, sophisticated contract negotiations, and in obtaining, renewing and renegotiating the terms of financing business operations. He routinely works with clients’ chief executive officers, chief financial officers, directors, and in-house general and assistant general counsels, including occasionally working from clients’ corporate headquarters upon request. Rich works with corporate and finance clients of all sizes, from startup family-run businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors to Fortune 500 clients. He also has experience representing clients across many industries, including health care, data management, retail product display and advertising design and manufacturing, industrial manufacturing, and real estate management and brokerage industries.

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Photo of Tracy S. Combs Tracy S. Combs

Tracy serves as Co-Managing Shareholder of the Salt Lake City office. A former Regional Director at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, she represents corporations, financial institutions, and individuals in a wide range of federal and state government investigations, litigation, and regulatory inquiries…

Tracy serves as Co-Managing Shareholder of the Salt Lake City office. A former Regional Director at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, she represents corporations, financial institutions, and individuals in a wide range of federal and state government investigations, litigation, and regulatory inquiries nationwide, including those involving the SEC, the Department of Justice, and state Attorneys General. She also counsels clients in complex business disputes, tort litigation, and cybersecurity matters. As Utah Business Journal’s Legal Elite edition stated in 2025, Tracy can “navigate a wide range of legal situations and…easily handle a crisis for any client.”

Tracy joined GT after an eight-year tenure at the SEC, where she served in a variety of roles in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Most recently, Tracy served as Director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office, where she oversaw some of its most high-profile cases. As a former SEC trial and investigative attorney in San Francisco, Tracy brought several groundbreaking enforcement actions, including the SEC’s first public company cybersecurity disclosure case and its first “shadow” insider trading case. Tracy served for three years in the Division of Enforcement’s former Cyber Unit, where she co-led its Cybersecurity & Regulated Entities group. In 2021 to 2022, Tracy served as counsel to the Director of Enforcement, advising on priority matters and coordinating with the SEC’s criminal and civil law enforcement partners nationwide.

Prior to her government service, Tracy was a litigator at a large law firm in Philadelphia and New York, with a focus on high-stakes white collar criminal matters, securities class actions, and complex commercial disputes, and clerked for the Honorable Luis Felipe Restrepo in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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Photo of William Mack William Mack

William B. Mack is a co-chair of the Financial Regulatory & Compliance Practice. He is experienced in advising companies on regulatory and compliance matters relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, the Exchange Act, Anti-Money Laundering laws and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

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William B. Mack is a co-chair of the Financial Regulatory & Compliance Practice. He is experienced in advising companies on regulatory and compliance matters relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, the Exchange Act, Anti-Money Laundering laws and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rules.

William’s practice involves all aspects of broker-dealer regulation, including Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) membership, supervision, employment, research, soft dollar arrangements, chaperoning of foreign broker-dealers, social media, use of foreign finders, anti-money laundering rules, alternative trading systems (ATS), exchanges, and market making issues. He also provides regulatory guidance to investment banking clients in connection with securities offerings and related trading issues.

William advises firms in the FINRA new membership (NMA) and the continuing membership (CMA) processes. William assists firms to develop or amend their written supervisory procedures and compliance manuals.

William routinely represents clients who are negotiating placement agent agreements, foreign finders agreements, clearing agreements, agreements with registered representatives and expense-sharing agreements.

William assists broker-dealers and their associated persons to respond to regulatory examinations and inquiries and provides effective representation in a range of enforcement proceedings with the SEC, FINRA, NYSE, state and foreign regulatory authorities. He regularly prepares and defends witnesses in FINRA on-the-record interviews and SEC testimony. Enforcement matters have involved issues including market manipulation, supervision, customer defalcations, insider trading, anti-money laundering, distribution of unregistered securities, direct market access, market making, soft dollar arrangements, cross border trading, electronic intrusion and customer impersonation, sales practices, supervision, private placements, ETFs, indexes, and other securities products.

William regularly addresses questions with respect to what activities require or are exempt from broker-dealer registration. William assists firms in obtaining guidance, interpretive letters, and no-action relief from FINRA and the SEC with respect to novel securities issues and the creation of new products and services. William also advises clients on cryptocurrency, tokenization, NFTs, DeFi structures, and digital asset exchanges and trading.

Prior to joining the firm, William was a Principal Counsel for Enforcement at FINRA. Before FINRA, he was the Director of the Executive Secretariat in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. William also served as a Deputy Associate Counsel at the White House, advising primarily on appointments and investigations. Before the White House, he practiced at large firms in New York. William clerked for Judge Robert L. Carter in the Southern District of New York.

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Photo of Rachel Edwards Rachel Edwards

Rachel C. Edwards is a member of the Corporate Practice in Greenberg’s San Diego office and represents private clients in a variety of corporate and securities matters with a focus on ongoing securities compliance and reporting obligations under the Investment Company Act of…

Rachel C. Edwards is a member of the Corporate Practice in Greenberg’s San Diego office and represents private clients in a variety of corporate and securities matters with a focus on ongoing securities compliance and reporting obligations under the Investment Company Act of 1940, corporate governance, and general transactional matters. Rachel has experience representing federally and state registered investment advisers, exempt reporting advisers, broker-dealers and private funds, providing guidance on formation and registration, corporate securities matters, and ongoing SEC and state-based compliance.

Rachel’s corporate practice also extends to counseling startup and private companies throughout their life cycle, including guiding clients through the formation process, managing their capitalization tables, assisting with seed and preferred stock financings, preparing and filing state securities filings, and advising clients with day-to-day corporate governance. Rachel has also helped clients navigate complex financings, including Regulation A, Regulation “CF” crowdfunding, and Regulation D offerings.

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Photo of Douglas W. Hathaway Douglas W. Hathaway

Douglas W. Hathaway is a corporate associate in Greenberg Traurig’s Chicago office, where he is a member of the firm’s Fund Formation and Investment Management Groups. He regularly counsels private equity and hedge fund sponsors in connection with the formation, structuring, capital raising…

Douglas W. Hathaway is a corporate associate in Greenberg Traurig’s Chicago office, where he is a member of the firm’s Fund Formation and Investment Management Groups. He regularly counsels private equity and hedge fund sponsors in connection with the formation, structuring, capital raising activities, ongoing operations, and regulatory compliance of their funds and other alternative investment vehicles. He has represented established and emerging investment managers across an array of domestic and international strategies, including buyout equity, distressed debt, fund of funds, and alternative investment strategies. In addition, Douglas works with a number of registered funds on a number of issues including compliance, filings, and work with their independent boards.

Douglas also advises a range of investment advisers on various compliance issues.

Prior to joining the firm Douglas served in the United States Army and worked at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During law school, he interned at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.

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  • Posted in:
    Banking, Finance and Securities
  • Blog:
    Financial Services Observer
  • Organization:
    Greenberg Traurig, LLP
  • Article: View Original Source

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