If nothing else, many lawyers love a good word puzzle. Countless millions of dollars -- dare I say, billions or trillions? -- have been spent in litigation over the meaning of a paragraph, sentence, clause, or even a single word. Quite often, the battle lines are drawn when there is a commonsense, everyday meaning for a particular term but there is also a whole other definition set forth by the courts and common law. For those of you done with today's crossword puzzle, let me offer you another bit of diversion. How would you define the core difference between a regulatory Bar and a regulatory Suspension? Many would answer that a Bar begins on a date certain but does not end on a date certain; whereas, a suspension begins on a date certain and ends on a date certain. In more understandable terms, the general idea behind a Bar seems to be that you're out of the business until someone allows you back in, which may never happen; and the concept of a suspension is that you can come back in the business after you've served the requisite days, weeks, months, or years. The problem, however, is that some securities regulators impose multi-year Bars. Another problem is that some suspensions result in what is essentially the "bar" of a Statutory Disqualification. Like I said, lawyers with big-dollar billable hourly rates love this stuff. Consider this recent petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission by a barred individual. READ