"We're not saying that it's bad to increase the disclosure period," says McMenamin, his lawyer. "But to do this when a person is out of the industry in a completely different sector is punitive and a misapplication of the laws."
While the privacy concerns that Santos-Buch raises are engaging, other arguments he makes may be more persuasive, lawyers say. For example, they say a judge may ultimately decide it is wrong for Finra to apply its permanent disclosure rule to Santos-Buch retroactively, given how long ago his disciplinary case occurred.
Santos-Buch says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbids applying a law retroactively when that means sanctions against an individual may increase. He views his prolonged employment challenges as one such sanction.
"I think he has a very good argument that his case predated Finra rules and disclosure issues and should not be disclosed," said Tom Lewis, a Princeton, N.J., lawyer who represents brokers in employment disputes.
Such an outcome, however, would probably not apply to more recent disciplinary cases, given a growing interest among regulators in making information about financial advisors broadly available to investors, Lewis said.
Even if Santos-Buch prevails, his problem may not completely go away, Lewis said, since old information continues to circulate on the Internet.
"I'm not sure there's a way to help with the Google searches," Lewis said.