MEDIA CONTACT: Pat Vaughan Tremmel at (847) 491-4892 or at p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

April 8, 2003

SEC Officials to Take Part in Securities Institute

CHICAGO --- Leading officials from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and practitioners from law and investment firms will be among the featured participants in the 23rd Annual Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute presented by Northwestern University School of Law.

The institute will take place April 10 and 11 at the School of Law, Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago Ave.

Cynthia A. Glassman, commissioner, SEC, Washington, D.C., will deliver the keynote address at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10.

David S. Ruder, professor of law at Northwestern and former SEC chairman, will join top SEC officials in a workshop covering crucial issues on the commission’s current agenda at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, April 10. SEC participants include Jackson M. Day, acting chief accountant; Martin P. Dunn, deputy director, division of corporation finance; Mary E. Keefe, director, Midwest region; and Linda Chatman Thomsen, deputy director, division of enforcement.

“Once again the program promises leading analyses of current securities developments confronting publicly and privately held corporations,” said David E. Van Zandt, dean and professor at Northwestern University School of Law.

Among the topics to be discussed are handling shareholder proposals; audit committees and auditor independence; legal and ethical issues in light of Rule 307; defending the corporation against fraud charges; and current issues in disclosure, certification, mergers and acquisitions and capital formation.

The Garrett Institute was established in memory of Ray Garrett Jr., former chairman of the SEC, member of the Northwestern University School of Law faculty and partner in the Chicago office of Gardner Carton & Douglass.

For further information or to order a program brochure, e-mail Debra Williams, d-williams6@law.northwestern.edu, or send a fax to (312) 503-2930. See full schedule at: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/contexec/cle/garrett/index.htm.