Defending An SEC Investigation

Securities enforcement has recently seen many new developments, from technical modifications such as those implemented in response to COVID-19 shelter-in-place requirements, to substantive refocusing of enforcement efforts on novel issues such as cryptocurrencies and SBA loan frauds, and renewed attention on traditional frauds such as foreign corrupt practices act violations and insider trading. Increasingly, clients who may never before have had any expectation of being involved with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are now finding themselves caught up in SEC investigations. In this current environment, it is important for attorneys to have a sense of how to handle a modern SEC investigation.

In this program, Jason Pickholz, founder of The Pickholz Law Offices LLC, a securities attorney with 25 years of experience handling SEC investigations and an author of the two-volume treatise Securities Crimes, and Seth T. Taube, a partner of Baker Botts LLP and a former Branch Chief of Enforcement, New York Office of the SEC and Special Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, will walk attorneys through the handling of an SEC investigation from inception through conclusion.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the different sources from which an SEC investigation might be instituted
2. Review some key first steps that a securities attorney should consider
3. Evaluate "best practices" for responding to SEC requests for client documents and testimony
4. Navigate conflict of interest and multiple representations
5. Consider cases involving, or potentially involving, parallel proceedings by other agencies or regulators
6. Analyze unique aspects of international investigations