sec whistleblower attorneys
Our Team
Results
SEC Whistleblower Program
While we act on behalf of the world’s largest institutional investors in our securities litigation practice, our SEC whistleblower clients are diverse, coming from all walks of life, a wide range of industries and every corner of the globe.
On behalf of prominent institutional investors around the world, our firm has taken on a veritable who’s who of Corporate America, recovering billions of dollars and compelling sweeping corporate governance reforms to ensure that the financial markets operate with transparency, fairness and accountability.
Our clients tend to be senior executives that have a lot to lose or other knowledgeable individuals who are able to substantiate significant possible securities violations. While the majority of our clients elect to remain anonymous, we can share certain data points to provide greater insight into our practice.
Our clients’ tips resulted in landmark SEC enforcement actions against JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch — combined settlements of more than $720 million.
Our exclusive focus on SEC whistleblowers renders us uniquely attuned to the myriad of issues our clients face, as they tackle one of the most difficult decisions in their lives. This sensitivity shapes every area of our legal practice.
Our process is thoughtful, informed by both quantitative data and in-the-trenches experience. It is not uncommon for us to spend months confirming the existence of a securities violation or strengthening the evidentiary record for a client. In evaluating cases, we view potential clients as individuals, appreciate their goals and address their fears. We systematically push, probe and challenge clients to find the strengths and weaknesses in their cases. On our end, we call upon sophisticated and proprietary data analytics tools to help clients make informed decisions about whether, when and how to blow the whistle. We are always open, honest and direct. Due to the high-stakes involved, SEC whistleblowers deserve nothing less.
We are a low-volume and ultra-selective whistleblower representation practice. Our past successes allow us to be patient. Historically, on average, we have accepted less than 12 cases per year. Because we care deeply about investor protection, apart from the potential for substantial monetary sanctions and awards, we consider the significance of the violations and the nature of the harm. In fact, each year, we accept one or two cases, in which there is egregious wrongdoing—even though the probability of success or potential monetary sanctions is relatively low.
We don’t bait and switch. Inexperienced and junior lawyers will never learn on our clients’ cases. Our partners carry their own bags and only partners work on our whistleblower matters. We are proud to offer clients a dream team of legal experts with nearly 100 years’ combined experience in federal law enforcement—overseeing hundreds of successful SEC enforcement actions and related DOJ prosecutions. With stakes this high, whistleblowers should rely upon time-tested, real-world experience building, litigating and winning complex securities cases.
Where most law firms rely on lean staffing models to drive profits, we operate our practice as a large and collaborative team. All four of our partners meet, consult with and provide their insights, instincts and experience to each of our SEC whistleblower clients. These partners are supported by a world-class team of in-house investigators, financial analysts and forensic accountants. While each client engagement will have a lead partner assigned to it, effectively, our clients benefit from having four experienced partners working on their case, for the price of one.
Some whistleblower practices file the necessary paperwork and disappear. Not us. We are in it for the long haul, available to our clients 24/7, providing a comprehensive and complimentary suite of services to address the full panoply of a whistleblower client’s needs. Sometimes our clients need help finding new jobs or new homes, other times they need financial planning assistance to manage substantial SEC whistleblower awards. We have met with clients in a church, at a neighborhood playground and on vacation abroad. Our job is to guide clients through tricky terrain with compassion and responsiveness. And that doesn’t happen on our terms, it happens on our clients’.
We are selective. Our past success allows us to be patient. Our work is deeply personal. We seek clients who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard to ensure the success of their cases and we studiously avoid clients who don’t play well with others. Ultimately, we trust our instincts. When a case is truly special, we feel it. It changes and excites us. Working with courageous SEC whistleblowers is the most rewarding thing that we can imagine doing with our lives.
