The past year has brought a new presidential administration and leadership at the SEC, which has already had significant ramifications for SEC enforcement and will continue to shape SEC enforcement in the upcoming months and years. The changes in SEC leadership have brought with them a focus on environmental, social, and governance issues, digital assets, and SPAC transactions. Continuing a trend that began with the onset of the COVID-pandemic, private securities litigation again slowed in the first half of 2021, driven partly by reduced levels of M&A-related litigation. Nevertheless, several notable decisions affecting private securities litigation came down in the first half of 2021, including on rebutting the Basic presumption, the extraterritorial reach of the 1934 Act, and standing to bring suit under the 1933 Act in connection with direct listings. S&C’s Securities Enforcement and Litigation Update reviews and analyzes these and other recent developments in SEC enforcement and private securities litigation, including numerical trends, areas of focus, significant court decisions and COVID-related developments.