Financial Services Litigation and Enforcement | Practices

Practice Contacts

Market-Leading Financial Experience. Our financial services litigators are seasoned problem solvers and trusted advisors to clients in all manners of financial services cases, from pre-litigation strategies through motion practice, trials, and appeals. Our financial services litigators routinely defend public companies and their officers and directors in financial services litigation, including securities litigation, shareholder derivative actions, and SEC enforcement actions and investigations. Leveraging our market-leading experience, our financial services litigators often obtain early dismissal on behalf of our clients.

Our financial services litigators regularly represent brokerage firms, financial services and securities industry members, and individuals with securities-related issues in litigation and arbitration. These representations may include customer disputes, employment disputes, motions to compel arbitration, enforcement of not-to-compete covenants, forgivable loan agreements, and the competitive raiding of employees.

Our financial services litigators also represent broker-dealers, registered investment advisors and registered representatives, and investment advisors in a broad range of regulatory audits, examinations, investigations, compliance issues, enforcement actions and disciplinary inquiries before the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, State Regulators and the PCAOB. We defend firms and their employees in formal and informal investigations and proceedings. We also provide counsel regarding how to comply with restrictive covenants and transition to a new firm, including reviewing and drafting the necessary entity and individual agreements.

A Unique, Cross-Disciplinary Approach. Our financial services litigators routinely partner with our transactional attorneys to ensure an integrated approach to advising public and private company boards, executive leadership, and in-house legal counsel on strategic business, corporate governance, and securities matters. We believe that this knowledge and experience, coupled with our holistic, cross-disciplinary approach to our representation of clients, drive unique efficiencies and synergies in our defense of securities litigations. As financial services litigators, we continually meld the wisdom of experience with the energy of innovation to defend cases. And we do it efficiently, both with a distinctively tailored team and with our client’s business goals top-of-mind. Where appropriate, we resolve disputes promptly and successfully for our clients at the negotiating table and through the creative use of alternative dispute resolution procedures. We leave nothing to chance. In every case we litigate, we acquire a complete and thorough understanding of the issues and how they relate to our client’s specific business needs and long-term objectives. We quickly develop and execute a plan to achieve our client’s goals and position cases for maximum trial advantage.

National Reach with Local Market Focus. Our financial services litigators have successfully tried and defended cases and counseled clients in regulatory and employment transition matters nationwide. Over our nearly 140-year history, Taft has become part of the foundation and fabric of our local bench and bar. Our lawyers have held clerkships at every level of our country’s judicial system, from the U.S. District Courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, and have served as attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Assistant United States Attorneys and United States Attorneys for the Department of Justice.

Our attorneys also serve as arbitrators and mediators in securities disputes. Our securities litigators bring skill and experience beyond their many years of successfully trying and defending cases. As a testament to their success, our litigators have been recognized as industry leaders by, among other organizations and publications: the American College of Trial Lawyers; the American Board of Trial Advocates; Litigation Counsel of America; Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business; The Best Lawyers in America; Super Lawyers; Benchmark Litigation; and the Wall Street Journal.