Our Duties as Ohio Citizens to Cultivate a Life of Learning

We should encourage self-sustaining government that develops our young people within the State of Ohio to participate nationally. Ohio cannot rely upon benevolent carpetbaggers to serve in office so that Ohio can compete nationally. Our own citizens and residents may seek a national education in noteworthy academic institutions across the nation and return to Ohio.

With the advent of Universal Pre-K education throughout Ohio, we can guarantee that our young people benefit from modern America and the great advances in learning and ability our young people now possess. Pre-K program and curriculum should enable the great diversity discernible among our children to be encouraged. Current educational scholarship and learning allows humane “tracking” among the very young by interest, inclination and ability. Achievements should be cultivated from advanced classical curriculum to that mitigating and correcting learning disadvantages whether societal or physiological.

In “Keeping-up-with-the Joneses,” Ohio schools and businesses must also look to self-sustainability in promoting development in energy resources. For, without energy resources modern society cannot exist. Our universities might not invent our energy patents in use, but we must provide a didactic rubric for competitive development of alternative energy sources within our State. Ohio government must look to academics and scientists within the State of Ohio to aid in drafting and revising statutes and administrative regulations that provide an overarching framework for bringing energy technology into Ohio. Interstate collaboration will permit a long viable modernization of the energy industry in Ohio. Our laws and regulations must be competitive.

Perhaps Former Speaker John Boehner and his soon to be The Boehner Institute at Xavier University in Cincinnati might begin policy formulation and regulation drafting on the topics of education, energy, management of government bureaucracies, as well as many others.

Lori Gayle Nuckolls

Popular Participation and Involvement is Truly Feasible and Obligatory, Even as to the Most Complex Subject Matters of State Action (Comments submited to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.)

I submitted the Comments below in response to a Notice of formal Rulemaking by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lori Gayle Nuckolls, Esq.

January 22, 2018

Secretary

Securities and Exchange Commission

100 F Street NE

Washington, DC 20549-1090

Sent via Email to: rule-comments@sec.gov

Re: File Number S7-09-17

Dear Secretary,

I write with interest in the proposed amendment of 17 C.F.R. Part 200, and the promulgation of regulations, to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §§ 200.80-200.80(g), by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or, alternatively, the “Commission”) regarding agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (the “FOIA”), 5 U.S.C §522, as amended by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 (the “Improvement Act”), Public Law 114-185, 130 Stat. 538. Please consider this letter submission of comments upon this proposed rule in response to the Commission’s notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments, as published in the Federal Register, on January 3, 2018, 83 Fed. Reg. 291-302. I support this new rule and I believe it achieves the Commission’s primary objectives as stated in the notice: to make revisions required by the Improvement Act, as well as to amend beyond the scope of the Improvement Act and utilize the necessary amendment to also “clarify, update, and streamline” current SEC regulation. 83 Fed. Reg. 292 (2018).

The supplementary information in the notice of this proposed rule states that the new rule essentially “codifies several existing practices” of the SEC, such as electronic responses to information requests and determination of the fees charged therefor. 83 Fed. Reg. 293 (2018). The SEC is longstanding, truly, in its fair reliance upon the incentives inherent within the American economy, and its principles of capitalism, to utilize advances in science and technology, primarily of the profit based commercial sector and marketplace, to the benefit of not only securities investors but also to the benefit of the nation.

In summary, the proposed rule permits reliance by major corporations upon information technologies currently in use, yet ensures individual requesters that their requests will be neither costly nor burdensome, with codification of a permissive outline of fees to be charged. 83 Fed. Reg. 299 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. § 200.80(g)(3)(i)). The proposed rule revises SEC FOIA request and response procedures to require the SEC to make disclosures of information available to the public in both the existing, traditional paper form as well as in various newly available electronic forms. 83 Fed. Reg. 295 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. § 200.80(a)). The new rule also provides all with assurances as to issues of privacy and financial records and data. 83 Fed. Reg. 295-296 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(b), (c)).

As in this instance, the SEC periodically refines and revises its own internal standards and procedures. It relies upon these informal decisions to transform intra-agency custom unto newly promulgated governing regulation. This proposed new rule is such an example. This rule provides user friendly information in which all participants, or, as denominated by the SEC “stakeholders,” in the global economy may share through due compliance, from the small individual investor, to the small, medium and large domestic or multinational business entity.

The new rule expressly acknowledges the various uses made of government information by diverse international market participants. For, it categorizes and defines anticipated requesters of information, from the individual investor, the commercial entity, the publicly interested academic or scientific organization, to the journalist of the fourth estate. 82 Fed. Reg. 298-301 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(g)).

The SEC further achieves great clarity for the benefit of the public, as well as for the other branches of government, in that this new rule proposes to also define and explain the services the SEC offers and relies upon in responding to requests for information. 82 Fed. Reg. 298-302 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(g)). The rule states that a “search” for information maintained by agencies of the Federal government is agency action to determine whether information is relevant to a specific request, contra distinct from a “review” of records maintained by agencies of the Federal government, which is agency action to determine whether specific information requested is exempt from disclosure as required by law. 82 Fed. Reg. 299 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(g)(2)(vii), (viii)). And, the SEC charges fees for these defined services which vary according to the category of a specific information requester. 82 Fed. Reg. 299-300 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(g)(3), (4)).

The new rule places the burden of compliance with SEC FOIA request procedures, not upon the requester of information but, rather, upon the SEC itself. In that, the new rule requires that SEC staff members provide individual guidance to requesters, both before the requester initiates a request, and after the SEC acknowledges having received a request. 82 Fed. Reg. 296 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(b)(3)). The new rule, though cautioning requesters that the SEC Office of FOIA Services is primarily responsible for evaluating information requests, expressly provides guidance for requests “misdirected” to a division or office of the SEC other than the Office of FOIA Services. The rule also indicates that the SEC will collaborate, both intra-agency within the SEC and among the other Federal agencies, if necessary in order to respond to a request for information. 82 Fed. Reg. 296 (2018) (to be codified at 17 C.F.R. §200.80(c)(2), (3)).

In drafting and promulgating regulation over a practitioner’s continuum, the SEC achieves equilibrium in the burden of regulatory compliance to be borne itself, as the governing agency, and as to that to be borne by the public. It, thus, internally evaluates regulatory alternatives prior to offering a new rule for public review. The SEC both protects and encourages investment and maintains market efficiency, and thereby produces national prosperity and capital growth. It gleans, from public participation, research that provides diversity in thought in policy making, examination and enforcement, and so provides both information and guidance to private investors.

I thank you greatly for considering my comments on this rule. And, I may certainly be contacted as indicated above.

Sincerely,

Lori G. Nuckolls

Featured

Law Students Before the Judiciary, Revisited

On Christmas Eve, last, I asked if the Rules formally adopted by the Ohio Supreme Court to govern the Ohio Bar might be amended to improve the educational opportunities of Ohio’s law students prior to their graduation. Supreme Court Rules for the Government of the Bar of Ohio, R. II., “Limited Practice of Law by a Legal Intern.” Perhaps, all Ohio law students should be permitted to share in providing formal legal representation to clients when mentored by a supervising attorney. This is something Cincinnati’s current Mayor John Cranley did as a student at Harvard Law School. He participated in a student practitioner program in the Massachusetts court system as a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, as I had done myself many years before. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts permits Second Year law students to engage in supervised civil representation, and Third Year law students to engage in both supervised civil and criminal representation. S.J.C. Rule 303.

Currently, when mentored by an Ohio attorney, the Ohio Supreme Court permits Ohio law students to act as student practitioner legal interns in both civil and criminal matters, and before courts, administrative boards and government agencies. Gov. Bar R. II. Sec. 5. Yet, the Ohio Supreme Court only permits law student practitioners to do so in their Third Year of law school. Gov. Bar R. II. Sec. 2.

Support truly exists for permitting Ohio law students to begin student legal internships in their Second, or even First, Year of law school. Ohio’s law students are usually employed part time while full time law students, as law clerks in law firms, corporations, governmental agencies, as well as in the offices of State and Federal partisan elected officials. Student practitioner duties would not diminish attention given legal studies.

Paid part time legal employment supplements participation in law school Moot Court and Clinical programs. Many students engage in law related employment before entering law school. Both the practice customs and economic structure of Ohio’s legal community would encourage the Ohio Supreme Court to expand upon its own court rules, and those of other States, to permit student practitioners to provide formal legal representation to clients. Currently, Ohio’s Third Year law students may only represent the financially needy and governmental entities, though in both civil and criminal matters. Gov. Bar R. II. Sec. 5.

If the clear majority of Ohio law students currently work in a for profit or personally interested capacity during law school, for law firms, corporations and partisan elected officials, why would an ethical concern arise if their current for profit or personally interested client work product were accorded the formal sanctioning of Rule II legal intern status? The for profit or partisan attorneys by whom they are currently employed are subject to the same professional ethical duties as are the government and public interest attorneys presently sanctioned by Rule II. The due and proper incentive of government should enable students to derive the most from the structure, both formal and informal, of their academic environment during their tenure as students.

We should agree that if law students maintain employment begun before enrollment through their First Year, law school studies would not suffer if they were given Rule II student practitioner privileges for this, or similar, work during First Year. Rather, our theories of client interest and adversarial practice, as the guiding principles of our judicial system, indicate that formal legal representation during law school enhances understanding of both law school studies and substantive for profit work product.

Acknowledgement by the Ohio Supreme Court of the substantive, for profit legal work currently incumbent upon law students in the private sector would enhance the depth of their legal study, and they would then more greatly succeed upon graduation into private practice. In for profit law clerk employment, law students research and draft, with the obligatory duty incumbent upon a practitioner, as do the current Rule II law students with governmental and public interest entities. The formal right to appear in a representative capacity, in deference to a mentoring attorney, allows a law student to fully understand the burden of client representation regardless of the economic status of the client.

Law students rely upon law school course work and law clerk employment to develop required skills in legal methods, specifically, analyzing judicial opinions, conducting Federal and State legislative histories, and the comparative analysis of both primary and secondary legal sources. With the addition of formal practice during First and or Second Year, Ohio law students would make a more informed choice of practice areas, and more readily begin their practice after graduation. Even our best known legal practitioners in Ohio, and we need not name names, would, I am sure, concede that, as graduates of Ohio law schools, they would have truly benefited from such an Hohfeldian right and privilege.

Lori Gayle Nuckolls

Philosophy, Law and Politics: an Introduction

This Blog is devoted to a discussion of philosophy from ancient to modern times and how it might provide insight and guidance in today’s world. This first post appeared on Facebook and provided the inspiration for the creation of this Blog.

Lori Nuckolls

A Theory of the Development of American Law

In light of current political controversy over reconciling public opinion and partisan ideology during this election season, perhaps we should give a look to ideas of many years ago. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a philosopher of the 19^th century, offered a view of the manner in which society engages in self-governance over time. For Hegel, human history is an achievement of rationality and understanding. In an incremental process, society struggles to develop thought, reason and culture. Our pursuit of our own individual ethical order is expressed in our devotion to the universal principles arising to govern society at each stage in its development. In doing so, individuals must expend great effort to transform their personal, particular opinion by engaging in speculative inquiry as to what constitutes the laws and customs of government. Rights, ethics and justice are universally appreciated and incrementally progress and develop. The content of our own law is then, at various points in social history, our universal understanding. While truly presuming that this is not a scholarly presentation of Hegel’s thought, perhaps we as a community may begin to look within and share in productive discourse.