Client Success

Situation with Client: A Fortune 500 financial services company was under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to issues arising out of the financial crisis. During the investigation, a C-level executive provided sworn testimony to the SEC and was represented in that testimony by another law firm, which was also counsel to the financial services company. After testimony was concluded, the executive received a “Wells” notice that the SEC staff had made a preliminary determination to recommend federal securities law charges against him. At the recommendation of the other firm, the executive called Nutter seeking personal representation.

Action We Took: We immediately assembled a team of attorneys, led by Ian Roffman, to advise the client. After obtaining all of the relevant documents from company counsel, we met with our client over several days and weeks to understand exactly what had happened. We then met with the SEC staff to better understand its concerns about the conduct. Based on our many meetings with our client and a detailed review of the investigative record, our team put together a comprehensive written submission to the SEC, containing more than 100 exhibits, detailing why the decisions that the executive made were reasonable and made in good faith based on the information available to him at the time and raising several challenges to the staff’s legal theories. Our team followed-up its written submission with a series of telephone calls and meetings with members of the SEC staff had various levels of authority.

Result: After several months of discussion, the SEC staff informed Nutter that it reserved its preliminary determination and would not recommend any enforcement action against our client.