David represents financial services firms and individuals in investigations and litigation conducted by the CFTC, the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, CME Group, and other regulatory agencies and organizations. His experience covers the spectrum of enforcement and regulatory matters, including derivatives and securities trade practices, disclosure fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, issuer statutory disqualification, and derivatives and securities regulatory compliance.
David served for nearly a decade at the CFTC and the SEC where he led numerous administrative investigations and federal court actions involving a broad range of conduct in the derivatives and securities markets.
While at the CFTC, David successfully represented the government in a federal court manipulation case involving multi-billion dollar intra-bank stock futures trades, the largest wash sale case in the CFTC’s history. During his five years at the agency he also investigated and litigated a broad array of cases involving futures and swaps trading and clearing practices, commodity pool and commodity trading advisor fraud, futures and foreign exchange Ponzi schemes, off exchange binary options trading, failure to supervise, false statements, and books and records violations. Many of the matters David led at the CFTC involved parallel investigations brought together with the SEC and other governmental agencies and self-regulatory organizations (SROs).
During his four years at the SEC, David led numerous investigations and federal court actions involving securities trade practice violations, securities offering and disclosure fraud, accounting fraud, mutual fund fraud, insider trading, failure to supervise, aiding and abetting, internal corporate controls, books and records, and options trading.
Before joining Barnes & Thornburg, David was a private practitioner at an AmLaw 100 law firm, where his practice focused on the defense of CFTC, SEC, and SRO enforcement matters and derivatives and securities regulatory counseling.
He regularly contributes articles and interviews addressing regulatory and enforcement topics to publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Futures & Derivatives Law Report, The Hill, Hedge Fund Law Report, Securities Regulation Law Journal, and Securities Law 360.
David is not regularly admitted to practice law in the local courts of the District of Columbia and is working under the supervision of a member of the D.C. Bar pending his admission.
Professional and Community Involvement
Member, ABA Futures and Derivatives Law CommitteeHonors
SEC Chairman’s Award for Excellence, Securities and Exchange Commission