Securities Inquiries, Examinations & Enforcement

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Overview

Our firm’s team includes former federal and state prosecutors, litigators with substantial experience at the federal and state trial and appellate levels, and practitioners with extensive experience at the SEC. Five team members previously worked at the SEC, and the team also includes an SEC-approved independent compliance consultant appointed in a settled enforcement action.

Our litigators are complemented by regulatory lawyers who advise on federal securities laws, including the Investment Company Act, the Investment Advisers Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and the Securities Act, as well as on state securities and registration laws.

We have decades of experience working with the staffs of the SEC’s various divisions, including trading and markets, investment management, enforcement, and the office of compliance inspections and examinations.

Our attorneys have represented clients in examination and enforcement matters involving all 11 SEC regional offices. In addition, we are frequent panelists at industry events, alongside SEC staff, including inspection and enforcement staff. We have also represented clients before securities regulators in 50 states.

We represent and guide investment advisers, broker-dealers, and other market professionals through inquiries, internal investigations, and proceedings initiated by the SEC. Our firm handles all phases of such matters, including responding to Wells notices and defending against enforcement actions arising under the securities laws and regulations.

Our practice is supported by Carlton Fields’ broader practice serving the securities industries’ regulatory, enforcement, litigation, corporate finance, and corporate services needs. We have developed a strong and broad national practice servicing national and regional broker-dealers, mutual funds and their sponsors, investment advisers, and persons associated with such firms. Our attorneys have experience with diverse, cutting-edge issues that arise from, among others, sales and distribution, compliance, and securities.

Experience

Represented former Kmart officer in SEC investigation.
Represented a former executive of Sunbeam Corp. in an investigation and enforcement action brought by the SEC.
Represented publicly traded companies in SEC investigations.
Represented registered investment advisors in SEC investigations.
Represented witness in SEC investigation, and SIGTARP and Department of Justice investigation and trial, of securities fraud in relation to public-private investment program involving residential mortgage-backed securities.
Represented witnesses in investigation and enforcement action brought by SEC alleging that defendant fabricated and disseminated false financial information about an investment fund.
Represented accounting firm and audit partner in SEC investigation involving financial reporting by publicly traded accounting firm client.
Represented broker-dealer in parallel SEC/NASD/state securities department investigation involving alleged theft of client funds by former registered representative.