Member Spotlight, David Slovick, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Washington, D.C.

Why did you get started in your line of work?

I consider my principal line of work to be defending (and earlier in my career, when I worked at the government, prosecuting) civil enforcement cases brought by the federal government and private regulators – so the SEC, CFTC, CME Group, etc. I was drawn to the work while still in law school for the same reason some of us are drawn to a good action film: financial cases often involve good guys and bad guys, high finance, and the overarching scrutiny of the federal government. I haven’t changed my opinion between then and now – I still love the work after twenty-plus years.

How do you believe NAFER will contribute to your professional development?

When I worked as an enforcement attorney at the SEC and CFTC I was responsible for supervising receivers and their counsel in my litigated enforcement matters, and I came to understand that receivers play an important role in the federal government’s enforcement programs. Although I learned a lot from those interactions I also realized that there was a lot I didn’t know. I hope that NAFER will provide me with the opportunity to meet professionals with more receivership experience from whom I can learn.

What’s the most interesting project on which you’ve worked?

While prosecuting commodities fraud cases at the CFTC I led a long-running, complex trade practice case against a large multinational bank. The subject matter was abstruse – wash trading of thinly traded stock futures contracts – and the legal theory that ultimately allowed the government to prevail was one I had to think up almost from scratch. The theory required the application of decades-old CFTC wash sale case law to brand new futures products which were traded outside of traditional market channels. It was a very interesting project because I was working from a blank slate and creating case law as I went along.

What do you read for pleasure?

Novels and history mostly, and the Financial Times weekend edition, which has a great travel section. It piqued my interest about Mozambique and other parts of East Africa.

Originally published in the December 2019 issue of The Receiver, a monthly publication distributed by the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers.