The average person thinks of "blue sky" and pictures a clear spring day, the type that would be perfect for a picnic. To a corporate paralegal, however, the term "blue sky" could make one cringe and run for cover, and it’s not because we hate cloudless, sunshiny days. Blue sky takes on a whole new meaning for paralegals whose job it is to research the state securities law filing requirements for each of the 50 states, all in connection with the filing of a single offering of securities by a corporation, partnership or limited liability company.
The protection of purchasers is the fundamental purpose of state blue sky securities laws and the main reason corporate and securities paralegals work on blue sky filings in various states. Each state has a regulatory agency that administers the law, typically known as the state securities commissioner. With few exceptions, every offer or sale of a security must, before it is offered or sold in a state, be registered or exempt from registration under the securities, or blue sky laws, of the state(s) in which the security is offered and sold. State securities laws are commonly known as blue sky laws because of an early judicial opinion, Hall v. Geiger-Jones, 242 U.S. 539, 372 S. Ct. 217, 61 L. Ed. 480 (1917), that described the purpose of the laws as preventing "speculative schemes which have no more basis than so many feet of blue sky."
