Epstein & Associates, Inc.
May 2000 · 1 month · Full-time
Bethesda, MD (on-site)

Project: StarCompliance
Work Locations:

• Phase 1: Founder’s apartment (early prototype phase) Bethesda, MD
• Phase 2: 600 Jefferson Plaza, Suite 316, Rockville, MD 20850

Role Overview

At StarCompliance, an early-stage compliance technology startup, I developed functional proof-of-concept systems demonstrating automated data mining of SEC EDGAR filings. Using FTP and Gopher protocols, I retrieved regulatory filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission and built a rudimentary ASP-based website to generate structured compliance-style reports.

The goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of a web-based compliance service for investors and legal professionals. These early prototypes validated the product concept and supported early discussions around platform direction and future development.

Data Extraction & Linking Logic

A significant portion of the work involved transforming unstructured regulatory text into queryable data. I used regular expressions to extract specific sections, identifiers, and disclosure elements from raw EDGAR filings, enabling targeted searches and report generation rather than full-document review.

In addition, the project required mapping legal references across documents. Many acts and regulations explicitly reference sections within themselves or cite other statutes. I identified these references and linked them to the appropriate source documents and locations, creating navigable relationships between filings, statutes, and regulatory provisions.

Project Context: StarCompliance

StarCompliance.com was the flagship product of Epstein & Associates, Inc., focused on delivering web-based compliance tools for professionals operating in highly regulated financial environments.

The platform was designed to support:

• Investment companies
• Investment advisers
• Broker-dealers
• Transfer agents
• Law firms and compliance service providers

Project Origin

The initial impetus for this work was practical rather than theoretical. A legal and compliance professional involved with the project needed to routinely assemble prospectus-related reports, a process that required locating, extracting, and organizing regulatory disclosures that were difficult to access efficiently at the time.

This project explored how publicly available SEC EDGAR filings could be programmatically retrieved and transformed into structured reports, automating portions of a workflow that was otherwise manual, time-consuming, and fragmented.

The service aimed to centralize regulatory reference materials, tools, and reporting utilities into a single, web-oriented compliance resource.

Platform Capabilities

Calendar Center

• Grid and flat calendar views
• Event management and compliance scheduling

Database Center

• Searchable regulatory data
• Sample search results and reporting outputs

Library Center

• Federal securities laws
• Federal Register
• Glossary of investment terms
• State “Blue Sky” laws

Tools Center

• Rule 15(c) reporting
• Proxy date calculator
• Draft board meeting agendas
• Organizational checklists
• Sample forms and procedures
• Tax diversification worksheet
• Schedules 13D/13G flow charts

Account Center

• User and account management

Historical Snapshot

A Wayback Machine snapshot of StarCompliance.com captures the early vision of the platform and reflects the pre-SaaS era of compliance technology—when web-based regulatory tools were still emerging and infrastructure was largely custom-built.

Note: The archived homepage image shows missing or broken template graphics due to how early web assets were referenced and how the Internet Archive captured external resources at the time. The gaps reflect archival limitations, not the original site’s functionality.

Other Details

Industry context: This work took place as regulatory scrutiny of corporate governance and financial reporting was intensifying. High-profile failures and the resulting regulatory reforms soon reshaped how compliance, disclosure, and record-keeping were handled across the securities industry.