New York Securities Fraud Lawyers Blog

This Thursday, September 8, 2022, New York City securities lawyer, Jenice L. Malecki, Esq., will be part of a live panel at the PLI’s Securities Arbitration 2022 program, a 1-day Continuing Legal Education (CLE) event on best practices and the latest trends in securities arbitration.  The event will be hosted by the Practising Law Institute (PLI), and will be held at PLI New York, 1177 Avenue of the Americas, as well as online as part of a live Webcast.

At the event, Ms. Malecki is scheduled to speak at 2:45 p.m. on Discovery Issues in FINRA arbitration. As part of a panel, Ms. Malecki will discuss FINRA’s discovery rules and procedures, understanding the role of arbitrators in the discovery process, how to execute orders of confidentiality, concepts around producing electronically stored information (ESI) such as proportionality, and how to avoid discovery abuse and related sanctions. Other presenters at the event include other securities attorneys and arbitrators, including Richard Berry, Director of Dispute Resolution at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The event’s programming includes an update on FINRA arbitration statistics and trends, what is new at FINRA Dispute Resolution Services, as well as recent technology updates and FINRA’s latest response to Covid-19 and how to comply.

Ms. Malecki is a regular presenter and panelist at securities industry events.  She is known for her nearly thirty-five years of securities industry practice and is the founder and principal of Malecki Law, a Manhattan-based securities law firm that provides both national and international representation, and has helped retail investors recover tens of millions of dollars in stock market losses, whether due to brokerage firm negligence, Ponzi schemes, or other financial frauds. Malecki Law also represents securities industry financial professionals in employment disputes with their firms, expunge unjustified customer complaints or defamatory comments from their Form U5 and BrokerCheck CRD, and defends them when faced with regulatory inquiries, including responding to SEC subpoenas and FINRA 8210 requests.  Ms. Malecki is a former board member of FINRA and member of its National Arbitration and Mediation Committee (NAMC).  She is presently the co-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Securities Arbitration Committee, as well as an adjunct professor in the securities clinic at the New York Law School.

Malecki Law is pleased to announce that Ms. Jacqueline Candella has joined Malecki Law as its new associate securities attorney in New York. Ms. Candella is a recent graduate of the New York Law School yet brings with her an impressive background in the securities and financial industry.

Ms. Candella received her Juris Doctor from Ms. Malecki’s Alma Matter New York Law School (NYLS), having also completed an undergraduate degree in Finance from Pace University. Prior to law school, Ms. Candella served as a client associate for Merrill Lynch – Bank of America’s Wealth Management Department, providing risk assessments, financial analysis, research, and account management support for high-net worth investors.

While in law school, Ms. Candella served as an extern in the Enforcement Division of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FINRA), where she assisted in the investigation of member firms and associated persons for violations of federal securities laws and industry rules.  She provided a wide range of support functions for FINRA’s enforcement attorneys, including research and drafting on legal issues. Ms. Candella also participated in interviews with registered representatives and worked on Form U4 and U5 registration issues. In a separate internship, Ms. Candella gained relevant law firm and litigation experience, performing significant work on customer arbitrations and mediations through NYLS’s Field Placement office.

Today at 1:00 PM, NYC FINRA arbitration lawyer Jenice L. Malecki, Esq. will be presenting at a year-in-review webinar hosted by the defense firm Bressler, Amery & Ross, entitled A Recap of 2021 Virtual Proceedings 2nd Annual Hearings in Review.  There is still time to attend and register for the event, which is open to securities attorneys and securities industry professionals. Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits are approved for attorneys licensed in New York and Pennsylvania, with reciprocity for New Jersey, Florida, and California.  CLE approval has also been applied for and is pending for credit in North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas.

Other presenters at the event include other securities attorneys, including Richard Berry, Director of Dispute Resolution at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The event reviews the increase in virtual arbitration hearings throughout 2020 and 2021 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, providing outcome statistics and the ongoing trend for virtual proceedings in FINRA customer and industry arbitrations. FINRA has long provided technology and support for virtual arbitration hearings primarily via Zoom and many trial attorneys opted for virtual hearings to avoid Covid-related backlog delays and to ensure their clients received a timely hearing.  Practitioners and arbitrators have become so used to using the trial platform that it deserves proper study regarding fair case outcomes if the practice is to continue – for the foreseeable future, virtual proceedings at FINRA appear here to stay.  The webinar will review practice tips, techniques, and resources for conducting effective virtual trials, best practices for presenting evidence, developing a plan for technology failures, and how the experience compares to in-person civil trials.

Ms. Malecki is a regular presenter and panelist at securities industry events.  As a renowned and skilled litigator in both courts and arbitration, Ms. Malecki has been featured regularly in the media and has published numerous articles to advance diversity and financial elder abuse issues within the securities litigation field.  She is known for her nearly thirty-five years of securities industry practice and is the founder and principal of Malecki Law, a FINRA Arbitration Law Firm that has been based in New York City’s financial district for over twenty years. Ms. Malecki is a former board member of FINRA and member of its National Arbitration and Mediation Committee (NAMC).  She is presently the co-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Securities Arbitration Committee, as well as an adjunct professor in the securities clinic at the New York Law School.

Next week, the New York State Bar Association’s Securities Arbitration Committee will be hosting a timely conversation on the future of mandatory arbitration.  For the last 35 years, retail investors seeking recovery of stock market investment losses have had no other choice but to arbitrate their disputes at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).  Prior to 1987, investors were able to bring lawsuits in the courts, but that all changed with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Shearson/American Express v. McMahon, 483 U.S. 1056 (1987).  Moderating this event is Jenice L. Malecki, principal and founder of Malecki Law, and also the Co-Chair of the Securities Arbitration Committee.  She has been on FINRA’s National Arbitration and Mediation Committee, on the board of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA), and is an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School.  Invited speakers to the event include Michael Edmiston, the current president of PIABA, Tracey McNeil, Ombudsman for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Angela Turiano, counsel and principal for Bressler Amery and Ross.

The benefits of arbitration have always been the economy of the process, typically involving less costs and faster recovery times than court. Compared to courts, arbitrations further allow very limited grounds for appeal. Arbitrators also have wider latitude than judges to grant relief to investors based on principles of equity and fairness – i.e., not necessarily having to adhere to legal precedent of earlier court decisions. This is a double-edged sword, however, because the potential downside is that arbitrators, who are under no obligation to explain their awards, have similar latitude to depart from substantive law to the detriment of the investor. The speed and economy of the arbitration process has also come under scrutiny, especially with the Covid-19 backlog of in-person arbitration hearings at FINRA.  The fairness of the process has also long been criticized in terms of the quality of the arbitrators and the “neutral” arbitrator selection process managed by FINRA.

What makes this event particularly timely is the very recent news out of a Georgia state court decision, which overturned and vacated an arbitrator award that denied investor claims in favor of the prevailing firm, Wells Fargo. The court made this rare reversal of an arbitration award because, in the court’s determination, Wells Fargo allegedly had an undisclosed “side agreement” with FINRA to exclude certain arbitrators considered to be “investor friendly.” The court agreed with the investor’s position that this side agreement created a bias against the investor because “[p]ermitting one lawyer to secretly red line the neutral list makes the list anything but neutral, and calls into question the entire fairness of the arbitral forum.” Brian Leggett and Bryson Holdings, LLC vs. Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC et al., File No. 2019CV328949, Superior Court of Georgia, Fulton County (January 25, 2022). The news of this decision has intensified pressure on FINRA to not only investigate the matter, but to possibly reform the arbitration process, something that has long been called for by members of Congress and investor advocate organizations like PIABA.