New York capital markets partner Lisa Jacobs was featured in an April 10 “Heard on the Street” item in The Wall Street Journal. A story titled “The Downside of Ratings Reform” pointed out that regulatory reforms and market reforms don't always go hand in hand, citing problems with the credit-ratings firms that may have contributed to the current economic turmoil. Jacobs pointed out that new rules from the SEC, which were adopted in December but will take effect now, require credit-ratings firms to disclose better how their ratings of asset-backed securities take into account the financial strength of the lender that made the original loans behind the securities. Jacobs also said that this could make it harder for many newly created asset-backed securities to gain AAA status.