Our securities enforcement and white-collar defense team advises and defends the world’s leading financial institutions and multinational corporations and, in certain cases, their senior employees in a broad range of regulatory and criminal matters. Partners in this area include two former General Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and five former federal prosecutors, who provide experience and credibility with the government. Those lawyers regularly team with partners specializing in areas such as antitrust, banking and tax so that our clients always benefit from the talents and resources of the entire firm.

We defend clients before the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC, state and federal government agencies and, when necessary, in court. We also regularly conduct internal investigations for companies and their boards, and advise on the development and maintenance of compliance programs—aspects of our practice that have continued to grow since passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Unlike many of our peer firms, we have equally strong capacity in Washington, D.C. and New York, and the close integration between those offices benefits clients who receive sophisticated advice in financial products and markets, as well as the expertise of seasoned veterans of the regulatory and enforcement process. Our international focus makes us the firm of choice for clients with significant operations abroad. And our established practices in Europe, Asia and Latin America enable us to provide a comprehensive and coordinated approach to enforcement matters that touch multiple jurisdictions.

Our recent practice highlights include:

• Representing several public companies in connection with investigations into the back-dating of stock options.
  
  
• Defending a multinational corporation in SEC and Department of Justice investigations arising out of the United Nations Oil-for-Food program.
  
  
• Defending a major financial institution in SEC and Department of Justice antitrust investigations into the municipal bond market.
  
  
• Representing the audit committee of a large insurance company in connection with government investigations into that industry.
  
  
• Defending major Wall Street investment banks in the mutual fund market-timing and research analyst conflict-of-interest cases.
  
  
• Counsel to major Wall Street investment banks in internal inquiries and follow-on investigations by the SEC and other securities regulators into various trading, valuation and reporting issues, including – most recently – issues involving the subprime mortgage market.
  
  
• Counsel to prominent companies in the media, food services and financial services industries in internal investigations concerning allegations of foreign corrupt payments.