Bingham maintains one of the country’s leading Broker-Dealer practices, with a group of nearly 50 dedicated lawyers who advise and defend clients on the full range of market and regulatory issues. Our team, including 6 Chambers-ranked partners and SEC and other key regulatory alumni, regularly handles some of the largest, most sophisticated and complex matters facing broker-dealers and other financial institutions.
We have the depth to field specialized questions requiring unique knowledge and the breadth to staff major projects, whether it involves handling regulatory approvals for the launch of the largest retail broker-dealer in the U.S. or advising on SIPC issues in a bankruptcy context. We can marshal the resources necessary to handle any conceivable matter for a broker-dealer or related business by drawing upon the assets of a firm with approximately 1,000 lawyers in 14 locations in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Bingham lawyers are considered leaders in the industry. We work side by side with the industry in matters to help restore investor confidence in the markets. Our lawyers have played significant roles at the national and state levels in most of the recent high-profile matters in the securities and investment management industries, including structured products, auction rate securities, insider trading, sub-prime mortgage matters, market timing and late trading, and the Global Research Analyst cases.
Members of our team are considered trusted advisers in the field. Our lawyers have conducted their careers in a manner which has earned credibility with the regulators, and have decades of personal experience or practice before the SEC Staff and Commissioners, the FDIC, FINRA and other SROs and state regulators. In the U.K., our lawyers have received regular appointment under Section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) as Skilled Persons. Our broker-dealer related practices are regularly ranked in both the U.S. and U.K. editions of Chambers, as are 6 of our partners.
Our clients include nearly all of the major international, U.S. regional and many local broker-dealers. We also represent securities exchanges, investment advisers, market makers, alternative trading systems, intermediaries, mutual fund distributors, dual-registered firms and insurance-affiliated broker-dealers, as well as boards of directors, audit committees and individuals. Because of our broad U.S. client base, we believe that we are uniquely qualified to opine on best practices and industry benchmarks in securities compliance and regulatory matters. Throughout the industry, we are known for bringing an extraordinary breadth and depth of knowledge to bear on the issues confronting our clients in the ever-changing regulatory climate.
We offer assistance focused on the needs of the brokerage industry in these areas: Trading and Markets, Compliance, Derivatives, Securities Enforcement and Investigations, and Litigation and Private Client Defense/Arbitration. Through our London-based Financial Regulatory Practice, we offer financial regulatory advisory and enforcement and investigations services to businesses or individuals subject to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA), the successor regimes to the FSA. In Japan, we assist both Japanese and foreign licensed securities firms with compliance, regulatory and enforcement matters.
Many of our partners were involved in the development of key securities or banking legislation or regulations, enhancing our institutional understanding of regulatory issues and their impact on broker-dealers. In addition, several of our lawyers have served in-house at leading broker-dealer organizations, giving us increased sensitivity to the business and management needs of our client base.
As it is one of Bingham’s core practices, the firm has made a significant, long-term commitment to the Broker-Dealer Group’s growth and development. This enables us to recruit leading legal personnel at all levels from key regulatory agencies and from the industry, deepening our knowledge base and providing clients with the most focused, cost-effective and appropriate level of representation.
From timely advice on the subtle nuances of a new regulation to a full-court-press response to parallel proceedings, we stand ready to provide clients with a broad spectrum of services in the U.S., Europe and Asia.