SEC Enforcement Defense

An SEC investigation moves through stages, and early guidance can change where it ends. Christina advises targets and others drawn into an enforcement investigation, from the Matter Under Inquiry stage through a Formal Investigation. She prepares witnesses for on-the-record testimony and assists them at that testimony. When the staff issues a Wells notice, she handles the Wells process, including the submission that argues against a charging recommendation.

Christina identifies those moments early, prepares for them deliberately, and works to keep them from becoming harder than they need to be. A document production that does not anticipate the staff's follow-up questions invites a second request. An on-the-record interview without a clear theory of the matter invites a Wells notice. A Wells submission that argues for sympathy rather than engaging the staff's actual concerns invites a charging recommendation.

Clients typically come to the firm after receiving a subpoena, a Wells notice, a request for an on-the-record interview, or a notification that staff is recommending an enforcement action to the Commission. Some have prior counsel; many do not. Some have had limited contact with the staff; others have been in the matter for a year and are entering Wells process.

The first call is short, confidential, and subject to a conflict check. The goal of that conversation is to understand the posture, the timing, and whether the firm is the right fit. Engagements do not begin before a written engagement letter is signed and any required conflict checks are complete.

Christina handles every meeting, draft, submission, and call. Strategy is set early, written down, and revisited as the matter develops. Settlement is treated from the outset as a serious option, while the firm also builds the record for closing the matter on the facts, the law, or the public-interest grounds the Commission weighs.

The timing of a Wells submission is set by the SEC. Submissions are read by the staff, reviewed by the Office of the General Counsel, and weighed by the Commissioners who vote on whether to authorize a case. A strong submission engages the staff's theory, addresses the cost-benefit analysis the Commission is required to consider, and offers a defensible factual record.

SEC enforcement matters often arrive with more than one regulator involved. Common parallel tracks include a CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission) investigation, a DOJ criminal investigation, an SRO disciplinary proceeding at FINRA, NYSE, or NASDAQ, and civil class actions filed on the heels of any public disclosure of the SEC matter.

Disgorgement, civil penalties, statutory bars, suspensions, and Rule 102(e) undertakings are all addressed at the framing stage, not after the fact. Decisions made in the SEC venue, a Fifth Amendment invocation, a cooperation discussion, a particular settlement structure, have consequences at the other venues. The firm coordinates rather than compartmentalizes.