A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. With nearly 4,000 lawyers globally, we are equally fluent in English law, U.S. law and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets.
This combination creates a new kind of law firm, one built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients on their most complex, multijurisdictional matters – everywhere in the world. A firm that advises at the forefront of the forces changing the current of global business and that is unrivalled in its global strength.
Our clients benefit from the collective experience of teams who work with many of the world’s most influential companies and institutions, and have a history of precedent-setting innovations.
Together our lawyers advise more than a third of NYSE-listed businesses, a fifth of the NASDAQ and a notable proportion of the London Stock Exchange, the Euronext, Euronext Paris and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
On April 6, 2016, the US Department of Labor announced final rules that will, for the first time, subject investment advice to IRA and other non-ERISA plan clients to ERISA's fiduciary standards and remedies.
On April 6, 2016, the US Department of Labor announced final
rules that will, for the first time, subject investment advice to
IRA and other non-ERISA plan clients to ERISA's fiduciary
standards and remedies. Currently, brokers and dealers and other
advisers to retail retirement clients are required to adhere to a
"suitability" standard with respect to their investment
advice. Under the new rule and related prohibited transaction
exemptions, which will be applicable beginning in April 2017, these
financial professionals must act in the "best interests"
of their client in order to continue receiving common forms of
compensation (such as commissions, third party payments and other
forms of variable remuneration). In eliminating certain compliance
requirements, the final rule is less stringent than the proposed
rule issued in April 2015, but it still represents a major
departure from the status quo.
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