Joan McKown has more than 30 years of experience in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement and financial regulatory matters including investigations, exams, internal investigations, and disputes throughout the United States. She has in-depth knowledge of investigatory issues relating to financial fraud, corporate disclosure, corporate governance, accounting, compliance, private equity, FCPA, broker dealer, investment adviser, investment companies, and insider trading. Joan represents corporations, and financial services firms, and their officers, directors, and employees, counseling them to avoid regulatory scrutiny, and when necessary, resolving matters on the best terms possible.
Prior to joining Jones Day in 2010, Joan was the longest serving chief counsel in the Division of Enforcement at the SEC, where she played a key role in establishing enforcement policies and worked closely with Commission and senior SEC staff. Joan literally wrote the book on SEC enforcement when she oversaw creation of the first version of the SEC Enforcement Manual. As chief counsel, she led hundreds of Wells meetings and settlement negotiations. At Jones Day, Joan has extensive experience submitting persuasive Wells submissions, having reviewed thousands of such submissions while on the SEC staff.
Joan is on the board of trustees of the SEC Historical Society. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the board of trustees of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. She frequently speaks and writes on SEC enforcement related topics.
Richard D. Owens is the Chairman of the Litigation Department in the New York office of Latham & Watkins. His practice focuses primarily on representing corporations and individuals in a wide variety of criminal and regulatory investigations and proceedings, as well as conducting internal investigations and advising on compliance matters. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Owens served for more than twelve years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
From 2002 through 2006, Mr. Owens served as the Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. During his tenure as Chief, Mr. Owens supervised a team of approximately twenty prosecutors devoted to investigating and prosecuting securities fraud, commodities fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Mr. Owens was responsible for coordinating the Office’s criminal prosecutions with parallel civil matters brought by the Securities & Exchange Commission
(SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Reserve Banks, the New York Stock Exchange, the NASD, and state regulators. Mr. Owens directly supervised some of the nation's highest profile prosecutions of corporate fraud and insider trading, including those related to WorldCom, Adelphia Communications, American BankNote, ImClone Systems, Impath, Inc., and Royal Ahold, N.V. Mr. Owens received the Attorney General’s annual Distinguished Service Award in 1996 for the successful prosecution of the Daiwa Bank and again in 2000 for the successful prosecution of Patrick R. Bennett in connection with the then-largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Mr. Owens has tried twelve felony cases, including two of the three largest criminal accounting fraud cases ever prosecuted in the Southern District of New York.
Ms. Thomsen, who was the first woman to serve as the Director of the Division of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a partner in Davis Polk’s Litigation Department and practices in the Washington DC office. Her practice concentrates in matters related to the enforcement of the federal securities laws. She has represented clients in SEC enforcement investigations and inquiries, in enforcement matters before other agencies, including the Department of Justice (various U.S. Attorneys Offices) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, in investigations and inquiries from self-regulatory agencies, including FINRA, and in internal investigations. These matters, which are typically non-public, have covered a broad range of securities related subject matters, including insider trading, foreign corrupt practices, financial reporting, manipulation and regulatory compliance. Her clients have included major financial institutions, regulated entities, public companies and senior executives.
Ms. Thomsen returned to Davis Polk in 2009 after 14 years of public service at the SEC. While there she held a variety of positions and ultimately served as the Director of Enforcement from 2005 through February 2009. During her tenure as the Director of Enforcement, she led the Enron investigation, the auction rate securities settlements, the stock options back dating cases and the expansion of the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act.
She is a graduate of Smith College (A.B. ’76, Government (High Honors)) and Harvard Law School (J.D. ’79).
