Throughout the week over at Securities Docket, I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web (on the subjects, predictably, of SEC enforcement and securities litigation). Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending December 25:

"Mr. Ruehle, You Are a Free Man": Judge Carney's Dramatic Dismissal of the Broadcom Backdating Criminal Case (The D & O Diary)The D&O Diary | December 25, 2009There has been widespread news coverage of the dramatic December 15, 2009 decision of Central District of California Judge Cormac Carney to throw out the options backdating related criminal charges against Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III and CFO William Ruehle, based on prosecutorial misconduct. But even though many of press accounts have reproduced some of Judge Carney's harshest words, the excerpts do not come close to capturing the depth and breadth of the Judge's condemnation of the prosecutor's conduct.

The Role of the SEC Under the House of Representatives Financial Services Reform Bill (W. Hardy Callcott, Bingham)Bingham | December 25, 2009On Dec. 11, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a major financial services reform bill, H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009. The bill (which is 1,279 pages long, plus a 135-page managers' amendment) is complex and far-reaching; it affects every participant in the US capital markets. This alert focuses on how the proposal affects the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the industries traditionally overseen by the SEC: broker-dealers, investment companies, investment advisers, and managers of public and private funds.

Evolutionary Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission (Jayne Barnard, Pitt. Law Review)Pitt. Law Review | December 25, 2009Since the worldwide financial meltdown in the autumn of 2008 and the discovery of Bernard Madoff's crimes in December, 2008, hundreds of critics and political leaders have heaped abuse upon the SEC Enforcement Division. This article explores the SEC's response to these critics, primarily through the appointment of new top-level managers and the initiation of an aggressive reorganization of the processes and workflow of the Division. It then sketches out six recommendations for further improving the Enforcement Division

Hot Seat for SEC Chief Schapiro Won't Cool Off (Susan Antilla, Bloomberg)Bloomberg News | December 21, 2009The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission has a past that is fast coming back to haunt her. Mary Schapiro's story has none of the lurid details of philandering celebrity golfers or hedge fund titans who get sued by ex-wives for concealing marital money. Her history and two pending lawsuits, though, raise an important question for investors: Is the woman who oversees the U.S. financial markets someone willing to fudge the facts to get things done?

Siemens ... The Year After (FCPA Professor)FCPA Professor | December 18, 2009Yet, on the same day Siemens agreed to resolve the FCPA matter, the company also announced that a U.S. government agency issued a formal determination declaring Siemens a "responsible contractor." In the year since resolution of the Siemens FCPA matter, the U.S. government continues to do substantial business with the company it recently charged with engaging in a pattern of bribery "unprecedented in scale and geographic scope."