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David Kornblau, a partner in the firm’s New York office, is co-chair of the firm’s Securities Enforcement practice group and a member of the White Collar and Securities Litigation practice groups. He represents institutions and individuals in complex SEC and FINRA investigations and in related civil litigation.
Mr. Kornblau served as Chief Litigation Counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement from 2000-2005. As Chief Litigation Counsel, Mr. Kornblau led the Division of Enforcement’s nationwide litigation practice during a period of large scale corporate investigations and heightened enforcement activity, including cases against Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, Wall Street analysts, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and mutual fund companies. Prior to serving as Chief Litigation Counsel, Mr. Kornblau litigated and tried numerous enforcement actions in federal district court and before SEC Administrative Law Judges during his five-year service as an SEC trial attorney. His cases involved all Commission program areas, including financial fraud, insider trading, hedge funds, market manipulation, municipal securities, broker misconduct, registration violations, and offering fraud. Mr. Kornblau also served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in a criminal securities fraud prosecution. From 2005 until early 2009, Mr. Kornblau served as Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Merrill Lynch, where he oversaw the firm’s responses to regulatory and law enforcement investigations by the SEC, DOJ, FINRA, New York Attorney General’s Office, and other federal, state and foreign regulators. These matters concerned all of the firm's business areas, including subprime mortgage securities, auction rate securities, information barriers, research analysts, retail brokers and supervision, institutional sales and trading, investment banking, pension consulting services, and municipal securities.
Representative Matters
- Representing a national securities exchange in an SEC investigation.
- Representing a global technology company in an SEC investigation of its revenue recognition practices.
- Representation of a head subprime mortgage trader and other mortgage trading desk employees of several major investment banks in investigations by the SEC, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, and the Nevada Attorney General’s Office.
- Defense of a trader in parallel insider trading investigations by the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
- Representation of a large regional bank in an SEC inquiry concerning its mortgage loan repurchase reserve.
- Representation of a major investment bank in CFTC, SEC, and CBOE inquiries arising from the "flash crash" on May 6, 2010.
- Negotiated a favorable settlement on behalf of a major investment bank in a FINRA investigation of alleged large proprietary wash sales.
- Conducted an internal investigation on behalf of a financial services firm into an alleged retaliatory discharge by its chief compliance officer.
- Represented trader in NYSE Regulation inquiry concerning wash sales in equity index-linked notes.
Publications and Speeches
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