Securities and Commodities Litigation

We represent companies and individuals facing FCPA investigations and prosecutions, conducting internal investigations to identify possible violations, evaluating potential disclosures, and working with the government to avoid charges. When prosecution cannot be avoided, our attorneys defend against government enforcement actions and take FCPA cases to trial.

Our attorneys have substantial experience representing companies and individuals in FCPA matters, and have been involved in many cases and investigations handled by the DOJ’s Fraud Section and SEC, which have primary jurisdiction over FCPA cases.

We defend senior executives, officers and directors, lawyers, and other entities and individuals in investigations and trials involving a wide range of securities, commodities, bank, financial, and accounting fraud matters.

Our cases have involved allegations or charges of insider trading, securities and commodities fraud, stock option backdating, money laundering, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and books and records violations.

We have advised clients and litigated cases related to mortgage-backed securities stretching as far back as the bank failures during the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. 

The firm represented executives of both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in matters related to mortgage-backed securities and related derivatives. Our attorneys have also represented the principals and officers of various banks, accounting firms, insurers, and mortgage servicers in regulatory investigations and enforcement actions by banking regulators, the SEC and the CFTC.

Our experience as a national white-collar litigation firm gives us the perspective and knowledge to conduct effective internal investigations for public and private companies—domestic and international—and to work with law enforcement, when appropriate, to resolve criminal or regulatory violations and secure a positive outcome.

The firm has appeared before the SEC and the CFTC on behalf of individual clients in numerous investigations, including Enron, AOL/Time Warner, Freddie Mac, and the mutual fund industry investigation. While we vigorously contest government investigations, in many cases we have worked with staff at SEC and CFTC to facilitate their understanding of a case and help them arrive at a decision that allows our client to avoid a public enforcement action.

Our attorneys regularly defend private securities and commodities claims, including class actions, derivative suits, and ERISA actions. Our experience makes us adept at quickly identifying the specific issues at the heart of claims against our clients, then developing and pursuing a litigation strategy that focuses intensely on those matters. 

Through this approach, we are able to target our discovery efforts at locating documents and eliciting testimony that bolsters our clients’ defense. We also work well with companies’ outside counsel and attorneys representing other defendants, and we know how to work within joint defense agreements to best serve our clients’ interests.

Enforcement and investigative proceedings before the SEC and the CFTC can affect a wide range of activities by companies, individual officers and directors, and the professionals who advise them, including accountants and attorneys. We are as familiar with the inner workings of the SEC and the CFTC as we are with the substantive issues the SEC and the CFTC investigates.

Many times, securities and commodities-related malfeasance may concurrently give rise to criminal proceedings, regulatory enforcement, and private securities and commodities actions. We have helped many clients navigate through the risks posed by such parallel proceedings.