AI's Growing Impact on Securities Enforcement, Regulation, Compliance and Practice

Joanna Travalini focuses on regulatory investigations and enforcement, internal investigations, securities litigation, and accountants and professional liability. She represents financial institutions, accounting firms, public companies, and their executives and employees in regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings, including investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and state regulatory agencies. Joanna also has represented clients in litigation adverse to these agencies. She is knowledgeable about SEC regulations, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and PCAOB rules and auditing standards.

Joanna was named to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Securities Litigation in 2021 and 2022 and recognized in Best Lawyers: Women in the Law 2021. She was listed in Crain’s Chicago Business 2021 and 2022 under Notable Rising Stars in Law. She was named an Illinois Rising Star in 2017, 2018, and 2019 by Super Lawyers.

Joanna draws from her licensure as a certified public accountant and years of experience in public accounting in representing her clients. Prior to joining Sidley, Joanna was a partner of the securities litigation group at a major international law firm. Earlier in her career, she was a project manager at Deloitte, where she analyzed quality assurance reviews and assessed regulatory and risk issues for member firms. Previously, she was an audit senior in Deloitte’s audit and enterprise risk services practice, where she conducted audits and attestations for clients in the financial services and manufacturing industries and performed client risk assessments under Sarbanes-Oxley.

In 2001, Joanna received a B.A., magna cum laude, in Communications and French from Boston College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received an MBA in 2009 from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a J.D. in 2009 from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was executive editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business.

Jessica Magee is chair of the firm's Securities Enforcement Defense Team, a member of the White Collar Defense and Investigations Team and co-editor of the firm's SECond Opinions blog. Recognized by Chambers USA for her work in securities enforcement and white collar and government investigations defense, Ms. Magee focuses her practice on helping companies and individuals navigate operational and governance challenges, internal investigations, and inquiries and allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal and state agencies.

Ms. Magee is a seasoned trial attorney, former general counsel and former senior officer in the SEC's Division of Enforcement. She has significant experience handling complex investigations and litigation matters involving alleged accounting or disclosure violations, securities offerings, securities trading, cryptocurrency and blockchain, investment adviser and broker-dealer duties and conduct, and more. She also has significant experience advising clients on matters of strategic planning, regulatory compliance, disclosure, risk mitigation, and matters involving corporate and shareholder rights, partnership disputes, director and officer disputes and federal receiverships.

Ms. Magee regularly represents companies, boards of directors and their committees, and individual officers and directors in government investigations and enforcement actions. She has considerable experience representing court-appointed receivers, and also works with private equity funds and their portfolio companies in multi-jurisdictional litigation and arbitration matters.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Magee was a senior officer with the SEC, where she led the organization's trial unit and regional enforcement program.

Ms. Magee also previously served as in-house general counsel for a financial services company, where she led the legal and compliance department. In this role, she advised the board and senior leadership on a wide array of legal, regulatory and corporate governance issues, and led the company's legal efforts through numerous strategic transactions.

Jeremiah Williams is a partner in Ropes & Gray’s litigation and enforcement practice group, focusing on securities enforcement as well as transactional and securities litigation. In his capacity as a litigator and former government enforcement attorney, Jeremiah has represented and prosecuted individuals and organizations—particularly in the financial services industry—in both the private and public sectors. Jeremiah also has deep expertise with valuation matters, and regularly advises public companies on merger and appraisal litigation actions in the Delaware Court of Chancery, as well as a wide range of securities litigation matters.
Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Jeremiah was Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While at the SEC, he was a member of the Asset Management Unit, a specialized group investigating potential misconduct involving registered investment companies and private funds, with a particular focus on the Investment Advisers Act and Investment Company Act. He also previously spent six years in the financial industry, where he worked with derivatives and developed quantitative models used for valuing and hedging complex financial instruments. Jeremiah has held the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation for more than 20 years.

Jerome Tomas is Chair of the Firm's SEC and Financial Institutions Enforcement Group and co-chair of the North America Government Enforcement practice group. He has been recognized by Chambers for White Collar Crime & Government Investigations. He represents multinational companies faced with government investigations and conducts internal investigations to assess and remediate legal and compliance concerns in domestic and global operations.
With his experience as a former member of the SEC Division of Enforcement’s Cyberforce, the agency’s internet and cyber fraud unit, Jerome regularly advises companies involved in data security breaches and incident response. Jerome now leads teams of lawyers to address government law enforcement perspectives and where necessary, meet and refute government legal theories of corporate and individual liability head-on, while also being pragmatic and business-oriented for management and boards to compete internationally.
Jerome has extensive experience representing clients in government litigation and enforcement investigations before the SEC, DOJ, various United States Attorneys Offices and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission . On multiple occasions, he has obtained complete declinations of enforcement action from federal and state agencies. Jerome has handled investigations and prosecutions relating to the FCPA, securities fraud and manipulation, SEC reporting-related misconduct, financial statement disclosures, auditor independence, insider trading, commodities manipulation, money laundering, the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, including the Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine, the US wire and mail fraud statutes and OFAC-related matters, among others.
Jerome also represents clients in connection with data security incidents, providing legal advice and navigating through initial reports of potential compromise, to investigating, coordinating, and reporting to federal and state authorities, consumer notification and ultimately remediating. Jerome regularly advises multinational companies on risk mitigation and compliance in the context of international mergers and acquisitions, other business combinations, and general corporate transactions. He has advised on anticorruption and trade compliance in transport, telecommunications, mining, oil and resource extraction, chemical, defense, pharmaceutical, health care, agriculture, technology, hotel, travel, hospitality, consumer products and manufacturing industries. He also advises on compliance with US and international anti-money laundering laws and the US Bank Secrecy Act.

Nicole Wells has 20 years of professional experience in providing consulting and expert services in forensic accounting investigations, antitrust criminal investigations and complex civil litigation, and general accounting matters.
Ms. Wells conducts complex investigations related to accounting irregularities and management conduct. Ms. Wells also has experience in dispute matters providing both consulting and expert services. In her career, she has provided consulting in the following areas: accounting irregularities, accounting-based fraud claims, kickbacks, accounting of profits, breach of contract claims, disgorgement claims, lost profit analyses, and post-merger & acquisition disputes involving both working capital and indemnification claims.
Ms. Wells specializes in complex regulatory criminal and civil matters involving price fixing, bid-rigging, and market allocation schemes. In criminal investigation matters, Ms. Wells aids counsel and clients in responding to domestic and foreign enforcement inquires on sales, pricing, and profits and the preparation of volume of commerce figures. In civil matters, Ms. Wells conducts analysis of financial and operational transaction data to respond to litigation requests, address FTAIA issues, assist with class certification defenses, and conduct historical pricing and profit analyses. Ms. Wells has provided these antitrust services across many industries to corporations based in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
Furthermore, Ms. Wells has given numerous presentations to the legal and corporate community on various aspects of antitrust regulatory investigations and civil litigation matters involving complex transaction data. She has also presented accounting-based investigation and dispute matters including working capital, earnouts, neutral arbitrator’s role in post-merger/acquisition matters, and overall damages for matters involving post-merger/acquisition indemnification claims.
Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Ms. Wells provided attestation services in the Audit & Assurance practice at Deloitte. Ms. Wells holds a B.S. degree in Accounting, Finance and International Business from Indiana University. She is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified in Financial Forensics. Ms. Wells is a member of the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.