People
Mark Lanpher
Biography
Mark is Co-Managing Partner of Washington DC and focuses on white-collar, securities, anti-corruption, and other regulatory enforcement investigations and related litigation matters.
He has represented clients in various industries, and regularly works on matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice, CFTC, FINRA, FTC, IRS, and other Government agencies.
Mark previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney' s Office for the Southern District of New York and as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel in the SEC' s Division of Enforcement in Washington. As a federal prosecutor, Mark served as lead prosecutor and trial counsel on a number of high-profile cases, and also argued appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mark served in the Office' s Organized Crime Unit, where he prosecuted cases under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO" ), and various fraud statutes; he also served as part of the Office' s Mortgage Fraud Task Force created in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008.
For his work as a prosecutor, the United States Attorney General awarded Mark with the John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation in 2011, and in 2010, Mark was awarded the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation' s Prosecutor of the Year Award.
While at the SEC, Mark played a leadership role in numerous significant SEC enforcement investigations, cases, and settlements, including enforcement actions targeting accounting fraud, offering fraud, CDOs, pump-and-dump schemes, and insider trading.
In addition, Mark was a member of the SEC' s Cross-Border Working Group and played a key role in investigations and litigations targeting accounting fraud at China-based issuers, addressing the cross-border issues presented by such government investigations.
Prior to his Government service with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, following law school, Mark served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Edward R. Korman on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and as a law clerk to Judge Reena Raggi on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Practice areas
- Securities litigation and enforcement
- Corporate and commercial litigation
- White-collar defense and global investigations
- Disputes
- Financial services litigation
- Financial services advisory and regulatory
- Sanctions and international trade
- International arbitration
- State Attorneys General investigations and litigation
Sectors
- Banks
- Financial institutions
Selected experience
- Multiple financial institutions in recordkeeping investigations and resulting resolutions before the SEC and CFTC.
- Multiple financial institutions in non-public CFTC investigations into aspects of the credit default swaps market.
- Multiple public companies in non-public SEC investigations following the completion of de-SPAC transactions regarding claims made in proxy statements, each of which has resulted in a non-public declination.
- Multiple public companies in SEC investigations following the issuance of restatements.
- A global energy company in a non-public SEC investigation of a whistleblower’s allegations of FCPA violations in Asia, which resulted in a declination.
- A global mining company in an FCPA investigation and resulting resolutions by both the SEC and DOJ.
- A public company officer in an SEC and DOJ investigation regarding alleged misstatements across a range of securities offerings for multiple companies.
- Multiple hedge funds in SEC and FINRA investigations of potential insider trading.
- Multiple financial institutions in SEC and DOJ investigations of various benchmarking issues.
- A major financial institution in an SEC investigation of market making activity and compliance with best-execution obligations.
Education
- B.A., magna cum laude, Yale University, 2000, Phi Beta Kappa
- J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School, 2003
Admissions
- New York, 2004
- District of Columbia, 2013
- New York Court of Appeals, 2004
- United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 2008
- United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2010
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2013