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.
Alan L. Beller is a preeminent legal advisor and recognized thought leader regarding securities law, capital markets and corporate governance. He is a Senior Counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.
Alan currently serves in leadership oversight roles for organizations dedicated to long-term quality and stability of capital markets and the best interests of investors and issuers.
Alan is a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit and Risk Committees of The Travelers Companies, Inc., a Dow Jones company.
He is also a:
—Trustee of the IFRS Foundation, which is responsible for governance and oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards, the global system of accounting standards used in more than 130 countries.
—Member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, which is developing industry-specific sustainability accounting standards that enable public companies to communicate financial material and decision-useful information to investors.
Alan was the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a Senior Counselor to the Commission from January 2002 until February 2006. During his four-year tenure, he led the Division in producing the most far- reaching corporate governance, financial disclosure and securities offering reforms in SEC history. Among his accomplishments were the implementation of the corporate provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the adoption of the first general corporate governance standards for listed companies and the successful completion of comprehensive securities offering reforms.
During his more than 30 years of experience in private practice with Cleary Gottlieb, Alan has represented market-leading US and non-US companies, independent directors and audit committees in complex transactions, including privatizations, demutualizations and other initial public offerings, and corporate governance, securities, corporate, and accounting and auditing matters. He has lectured and written extensively on these and other topics.
David M. Lynn is a partner in the Washington D.C. Office of Morrison & Foerster, and is co-chair of the firm’s Corporate Finance | Capital Markets practice. Mr. Lynn is a highly respected securities advisory counsel who provides guidance to Fortune 100 corporations, small public companies, underwriters and other market participants on corporate finance matters and best practices for disclosures and compliance. In addition to being a leading authority on SEC issues, Mr. Lynn is particularly well known in the area of executive compensation disclosure, having co-authored, “The Executive Compensation Disclosure Treatise and Reporting Guide.”
While serving as Chief Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance, Mr. Lynn led the rulemaking team that drafted revisions to the SEC's executive compensation and related party disclosure rules. Mr. Lynn re-joined the SEC as Chief Counsel shortly after adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and served in that position until 2007. As a result, he was intimately involved in implementing and interpreting the SEC rulemaking that occurred in the wake of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Mr. Lynn initially served on the SEC staff from 1995-2000 as an Attorney-Advisor and subsequently a Special Counsel in the Division of Corporation Finance. While in private practice from 2000-2003, he advised clients on SEC investigations, securities transactions, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance.
Mr. Lynn is co-editor of TheCorporateCounsel.net and The Corporate Counsel, which are widely read sources on securities, governance and corporate law matters. Mr. Lynn serves as co-chair of the Practising Law Institute’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation and is a former chair of the Board of Trustees of the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society and the American Bar Association Business Law Section’s Federal Regulation of Securities Committee.