Colleen P. Mahoney, a partner in Skadden's Washington, D.C. office, heads the firm's Securities Enforcement and Compliance practice, and regularly represents financial services firms, corporations, their boards, board committees, officers, directors and employees in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other law enforcement investigations.
Ms. Mahoney assists management and boards of directors performing internal investigations, often advising clients on preventive and remedial measures before and after securities-related issues arise.
Ms. Mahoney has been the lead attorney representing many of the company boards and individuals embroiled in signature SEC investigations. Her clients have included many well-known U.S. and foreign companies. As is frequently the case with SEC enforcement matters, the biggest victories are the ones that never become public – the government investigations and inquiries that are put to rest before charges are filed or an indictment is issued, or even before a public disclosure of the government interest. Ms. Mahoney has succeeded in bringing a number of matters to a close in those circumstances.
Prior to joining Skadden, Ms. Mahoney spent 15 years in increasingly senior positions with the SEC, serving as acting general counsel of the agency and as deputy director of the division of enforcement. During her tenure at the SEC, Ms. Mahoney helped manage a civil law enforcement program that addressed a wide range of issues, including financial fraud and disclosure, asset management issues, derivatives and insider trading.
Ms. Mahoney frequently lectures on securities regulatory and enforcement issues at seminars and conferences in the United States and abroad.
Ms. Mahoney has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, The International Who's Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers, Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America and The Best Lawyers in America. Since 2012, she has been recognized as one of Benchmark Litigation's "Top 250 Women in Litigation" and she also was named to the shortlist of the nation's top women regulatory lawyers by Chambers USA (2012). Additionally, Ms. Mahoney was included in Washingtonian Magazine's 2013 "Best Lawyers" list.
Steve is a corporate and securities partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where he practices out of the Firm’s Palo Alto office. From 2009 – 2012, Steve was the CEO of the Firm. Steve has served as an advisor to the SEC and Nasdaq on a variety of securities law, governance, financial reporting and capital formation matters. He was extensively involved in the development of Nasdaq’s rules with respect to corporate governance reform and other listing standards, and served as Co-Chair of the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council. Steve was a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on smaller public companies, which was charged with evaluating the current securities regulatory system, including the impact of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Many of the Committee’s recommendations have since been adopted as rule changes by the SEC.
Steve served as one of two attorneys on the IPO Task Force where he was extensively involved in designing the IPO-related provisions of the Jobs Act of 2012, including confidential submissions and testing the waters.
From 2002 – 2009, Steve was a lecturer on corporate and securities law at the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he designed and taught the Venture Capital and IPO Law course. He has also been a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Steve has published many articles in the areas of securities law and corporate governance. Steve was recently elected to his second term as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Board of Directors. He was the Co-Chair of PLI’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation in New York from 2007 – 2011.
In 2005, Steve was appointed as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies. This select committee was charged with evaluating the current securities regulatory system relating to governance, disclosure, financial reporting, internal controls, and capital formation for smaller public companies, including the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The SEC Advisory Committee's final report was delivered to the SEC on April 23, 2006. Steve served as chairman of the Governance and Disclosure Subcommittee of the SEC Advisory Committee. Many of the Advisory Committee's recommendations have since been adopted as proposed and final rule changes by the SEC.
From 2002 to 2009, Steve was a lecturer on corporate and securities law at the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he designed and taught the "Venture Capital and IPO Law" course. He also has been a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Stan Keller, Of Counsel in Locke Lord's Boston office, has extensive experience in corporate and securities law matters, and has worked on regulatory developments with officials at all levels in the SEC. He advises both public and private companies on a wide range of issues and transactions.
Stan chaired the American Bar Association's Federal Regulation of Securities Committee during the height of the Sarbanes-Oxley era, and in that capacity had responsibility for interacting on behalf of the private bar with the SEC, other governmental officials and the stock exchanges. He was actively involved with the ABA's Task Force dealing with the SEC's attorney conduct rules, with the ABA Task Force on Corporate Responsibility and with the ABA Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege. He also was chair of the ABA Legal Opinions Committee and Audit Responses Committee, and he has been actively involved in the ABA's Corporate Laws Committee as a member, special adviser and special reporter for the 2016 Revision of the Model Business Corporation Act.
Stan is a member of the TriBar Opinion Committee and was the reporter for its Remedies Opinion Report and its Report on Preferred Stock Opinions. He is co-chair of the Boston Bar Association's Task Force on Revision of the Massachusetts Business Corporation Law, which drafted the current Massachusetts corporation statute (Chapter 156D), and chaired the BBA's Business Law Section, Corporation Law Committee, and Legal Opinions Committee, as well as the Massachusetts Bar Association's Business Law Section and Corporation Law Committee.
Stan lectures widely for continuing legal education organizations, and has written and edited many articles and treatises on corporate, securities law and professional responsibility matters.