SEC sealThe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week fired the starting gun on a 30-day race for non-US lawyers to win concessions from sweeping anti-fraud laws as the regulator rebuffed claims that controversial plans to police lawyers were exceeding its remit.

The SEC’s publication of full proposals on 21 November to implement the radical Sarbanes-Oxley Act sets European legal bodies a tough deadline of 18 December to win exemptions from the Act.