SEC Practice – Developments in Administrative Proceedings, Trials, Testimony, Wells Process, Settlements, and more

Steven S. Scholes is a member the Firm’s management committee and the global head of McDermott’s Litigation Practice Group. His practice focuses on SEC investigations, shareholder litigation, including class and derivative actions, and internal investigations. Steve is an experienced trial lawyer, and he has tried civil, criminal and administrative cases in federal and state courts. He regularly represents clients before the Securities and Exchange Commission, state securities regulators and self-regulatory organizations, such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and stock, options and futures exchanges. He has served as the global operations partner for the Firm’s Litigation Practice Group and the partner-in-charge of both the Chicago Trial Department and the Firm’s SEC Defense Group.

Steve has substantial experience in securities class and derivative actions, including cases alleging accounting irregularities, illegal trading and breaches of fiduciary duty. He regularly represents public companies and their officers and directors in merger and acquisition litigation, including class and derivative actions, across the country. He has significant experience in conducting internal investigations in numerous industries, including the real estate investment trust, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and higher education industries, among others. He has also represented audit firms and corporate officers and directors in internal investigations.

A former attorney in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Steve has been appointed by three different federal judges in Chicago to serve as receiver in SEC civil enforcement proceedings. In this role, he conducted fraud investigations, prosecuted fraudulent conveyance claims, enforced judgments, marshaled and liquidated assets, and developed and implemented plans of distribution. Stemming from his work as a receiver, Steve has extensive experience in prosecuting and in defending a wide variety of fraudulent conveyance claims.

Steve frequently speaks on securities litigation and enforcement topics. He has appeared numerous times in the press and has authored various materials concerning the federal securities laws.

Benjamin Hanauer is Supervisory Trial Counsel in the SEC's Chicago Regional Office.

David Peavler has deep experience in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations and prosecutions, having served as Regional Director and Associate Director for Enforcement. He also provides unique insights on financial services industry regulation, public reporting, and corporate governance, having served as general counsel for a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser and as in-house counsel for a major energy company.

During his 19 years with the SEC, David led hundreds of investigations and enforcement actions covering every facet of the SEC's jurisdiction, ranging from corporate accounting and disclosures, auditor failures, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations to cryptocurrency schemes, insider trading, and broker-dealer and investment adviser wrongdoing. David has broad experience with SEC issues impacting the energy industry, having led the SEC regional office covering Texas and Oklahoma and brought many of the agency's most significant energy industry reporting and disclosure cases.

Before joining the SEC, David was a partner in the trial section of another law firm, primarily representing major accounting firms in SEC investigations, auditing malpractice litigation, and securities class actions.

As a former Senior Counsel in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Enforcement Division, Danette Edwards offers clients deep insight into antifraud and other securities laws, and is a trusted resource for navigating investigations and enforcement matters.

During her time with the SEC, Danette helped the agency obtain judgments ordering companies and individuals to pay more than $595 million to investors and the U.S. Treasury. She received multiple awards from the Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division for her work on investigations and litigation, and a trio of cases that she recently prosecuted were included in a select group of matters highlighted in the SEC Enforcement Division's 2020 Annual Report to Congress.

Having recently rejoined the private sector after more than a decade on the front lines of the SEC's enforcement efforts, Danette offers sound guidance to companies and individuals on SEC-related matters of all types, including suspected financial and disclosure fraud; alleged misconduct by auditors, broker-dealers, and investment advisors; and violations in areas of new interest to the SEC. Her practice includes advising clients involved in SEC Enforcement Division investigations and litigation, with a related focus on internal, special committee and non-SEC government and regulatory investigations; securities class action defense; and complex economic litigation. Danette draws on her significant SEC experience in examining witnesses and analyzing complicated data sets, and she uses her former regulator mindset to identify potential risks and promising theories and defenses so that she can make sound recommendations to clients in high-stakes matters.

Danette's practice also includes a cross-disciplinary compliance and risk management component that is critical for public companies as well as private sector and nonprofit clients. Danette advises on records and information management (RIM) best practices; cybersecurity; and environmental, social and governance (ESG) questions concerning environmentally sustainable finance, and diversity and inclusion as components of social governance.R> Danette frequently writes and presents on topics such as enforcement risks related to SEC rulemaking, significant SEC enforcement actions and other cases involving challenges to core aspects of the SEC's enforcement program.

Prior to joining the SEC, Danette was a white collar and commercial litigator at a national law firm, where she defended market participants and other players in public and private actions, and helped to establish the firm's records management practice. She also worked for the Honorable Catherine C. Blake, Senior District Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.