Frances S. Cohen has over 25 years of experience representing clients in complex litigation. She regularly defends clients in SEC and state enforcement investigations and proceedings and in federal and state class action and derivative securities litigation.
Frances represents banks, mutual fund advisers and distributors, broker-dealers and individuals, officers, and directors. Most recently, she has defended mutual fund clients in revenue sharing and market timing enforcement actions as well as the related class action litigation. She has extensive experience representing institutional and individual clients in front of the SEC and SROs such as the NASD (now FINRA). Recent matters in which she has appeared before the SEC and SROs have included a wrap fee program, gifts and gratuities, pre-market open order flow practices and revenue sharing practices, non-cash compensation, directed brokerage, and supervisory issues.
Frances has been recognized by
Boston magazine as one of the Best Lawyers in Boston in Securities Litigation and one of the top 50 Female Lawyers in Boston. She is an active participant in the Boston Bar Association. Frances is currently co-chair of the Federal Practice and Procedure Committee and a past member of the Council and co-chair of the Massachusetts Practice and Procedure Committee and the Summer Jobs Initiative.
- Defended mutual fund adviser against ERISA litigation brought by union pension plan in The Central District of California
- Defended variable annuity issuer in market-timing litigation
- Defended mutual fund adviser and distributor in purported derivative and class actions filed in District Court of Massachusetts relating to excessive fees
- Defended mutual fund adviser and distributor in purported class actions relating to market-timing
- Defended mutual adviser and distributor in purported class actions filed in federal courts in New York and Massachusetts relating to failure to participate in class action settlements
- Defended company in purported derivative action filed in federal court in Delaware alleging breach of Section 16 short swing profit rules
- Securities Enforcement: What Can You Expect in the Year Ahead?
- “Publication: Court Rules Out Securities Holder Suits,” International Financial Law Review (July 2005)
- Moderator, How Much is Too Much? The Supreme Court Review of the Gartenberg Standard in Jones v. Harris Associates, Boston Bar Association, Boston, Mass. (June 2, 2009)
- SEC Investment Adviser/Investment Company Examinations: What’s New?, Bingham McCutchen Seminar, Boston, Mass. (March 14, 2007)
- Don’t Look Back: Stock Options dating and Internal Investigations, Boston Bar Association, Boston, Mass. (Feb. 7, 2007)
- Recent Developments in Mutual Fund Class Actions (March 2006)
- Panelist, Current Developments in Securities Enforcement and Class Action Litigation, Investment Company Institute, Mutual Funds Conference, Scottsdale, Ariz. (March 20, 2006)
- Recent SEC Enforcement Actions in the Mutual Fund Area, Boston Bar Association, Boston, Mass. (April 2005)
- An Operator’s Manual for The Defendants’ Chair, Mutual Fund Directors’ Forum, Washington, D.C. (Feb. 17, 2005)
- Top Attorney in Corporate Litigation (Securities Litigation) - Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition (2009)
- Super Lawyers, Massachusetts (2004–2007)
- Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Edition, Securities Litigation (2009)
- Admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
- Virginia Supreme Judicial Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
- U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts
- U.S. Supreme Court
- Columbia University School of Law, Juris Doctor, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar (1980)
- University of Pennsylvania, Bachelor of Arts, cum laude (1977)