Bradley J. Bondi is a partner in Cahill’s litigation practice group and is a leader of its securities enforcement and regulatory practices. Brad resides in Cahill’s Washington, D.C. and New York offices.
Brad is a senior adviser to boards of directors, audit committees, special committees, public companies, financial institutions, and officers and directors in civil and criminal matters concerning securities and financial laws, crisis management, anti-corruption and business laws worldwide. In recognizing him as one of the top 40 securities enforcement lawyers in the country, Securities Docket described Brad as “the first choice among Boards of Directors and Audit Committees of the Fortune 500 when their company is faced with SEC or DOJ problems.”
Brad advises clients in connection with regulatory enforcement actions, private lawsuits, governmental and congressional investigations arising from suspected violations of securities laws, accounting irregularities, internal controls, market manipulation, revenue recognition issues, tax-related matters, insider trading, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other commercial bribery law compliance, compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts, potential antitrust concerns, and cybersecurity. Brad also oversees complex civil and criminal litigation, such as securities litigation, corporate control litigation, commercial litigation, contractual disputes, arbitrations, and criminal proceedings. He has litigated in various state and federal courts, including most recently serving as counsel of record for a successful amicus curiae brief before the Supreme Court of the United States inYates v. United States (construing Sarbanes-Oxley’s criminal provision for document destruction, 18 U.S.C. § 1519). In a counseling role, he regularly advises companies, financial institutions, broker-dealers, investment advisers, and hedge funds and their respective boards in issues relating to compliance with securities laws and SEC and FINRA rules.
Brad defends public companies, boards, committees, and individuals in enforcement actions, prosecutions, and investigations initiated by federal and state agencies and departments, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ), United States Attorneys and grand juries, State Attorneys General, Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Federal Reserve, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Brad formerly served as a member of the executive staff of the SEC as Counsel to two Commissioners for enforcement actions and regulatory rulemaking. In this capacity, he advised on enforcement matters and regularly liaised with SEC Enforcement staff in the home and regional offices on numerous enforcement actions. He also served on the steering committee for the SEC’s “Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2010-2015” and on working groups related to enforcement initiatives. While at the SEC, Brad was detailed to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission where he served as deputy general counsel and led one of the three investigative teams examining the causes of the financial crisis. In that role, he interfaced with various other regulators and law enforcement agencies. He also briefly served on detail as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, handling criminal prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Virginia.
Brad is a frequent speaker at business and legal conferences, and he has authored articles and book chapters on securities law, criminal law, corporate governance, and the attorney-client privilege and work-product protection. Articles that he authored have been published by the law journals of Harvard Law School, New York University School of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Fordham Law School. He has authored two book chapters on white-collar criminal defense strategy for Inside the Minds (Aspatore Books, 2007), and he formerly served as an associate editor of the Business Crimes Bulletin. He also has co-authored, among other pieces, a definitive piece on insider trading law, “The Law of Insider Trading: Legal Theories, Common Defenses, and Best Practices for Ensuring Compliance,” and, with SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, wrote an extensive account of the SEC Enforcement program, “Evaluating the Mission: A Critical Review of the History and Evolution of the SEC Enforcement Program.”
In addition to his practice, Brad teaches advanced securities law classes as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Mason University School of Law. He serves as a senior fellow at the Center for Financial Stability, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and independent think tank focusing on financial markets for the benefit of investors, officials, and the public. He is involved in international regulatory issues as a member of the Pallanza Group, an annual gathering of U.S. and European leaders hosted by the Istituto Bruno Leoni of Milan, Italy. In 2012, he served as a delegate to the 34th Annual American Council on Germany Young Leaders Conference in Germany. He also is a member of the board of advisors of the Economic Crime and Cybersecurity Institute, which supports education and research in economic crime and information security and functions as a resource for corporate, government, and law enforcement entities.
Brad has received national recognition for his work in securities enforcement defense, board representation, criminal law, financial and securities regulation, and litigation. He was named to Securities Docket’s “Enforcement 40,” list of the 40 “best and brightest” securities enforcement attorneys in the country and to the National Association of Corporate Directors’ 2012 Directorship 100 list of “People to Watch” in the board room. Global Investigations Review named Brad to its “40 Under 40″ list of the world’s leading investigations lawyers under the age of 40 and the National Institute of Trial Lawyers named him to its Top 100 Criminal Trial Lawyers in the State of New York for 2014 and 2015. Brad has achieved the highest peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell of “AV Preeminent” in securities law, litigation, and corporate law. He is recommended by The Legal 500 for securities litigation and white collar criminal defense, and is recognized as a “future star” by Benchmark Litigation, a “rising star” by Super Lawyers, and, a “best lawyer” in finance securities law in Washington, D.C. by Legal Force.
Brad is active in charitable and civic organizations. For the past ten years, Brad has served as a “Big Brother” with Big Brothers Big Sisters. He serves on the board of directors of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness about the needs of children without families and to remove policy barriers that hinder children from knowing the love and support a family provides) and the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (an organization to advance equality and civil rights, with a focus on health justice, disability rights and environmental justice, through the power of community lawyering and partnerships with the private bar).
Brad earned his LL.M. (with distinction) in Securities and Financial Regulation from Georgetown University Law Center, where he finished with a perfect grade-point average and seven book awards. He received Georgetown’s Thomas Bradbury Chetwood, S.J. Prize for having the best academic record in his class. He earned his J.D. (with high honors, Order of the Coif, Intramural Best Trial Advocate), M.B.A. (dual concentrations in both Finance and Management), and B.S. (with highest honors, the Outstanding Male Graduate, Beta Gamma Sigma, undergraduate honors program) from the University of Florida. He was admitted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame, received numerous academic and leadership awards, and finished in the top of the class in each academic degree while matriculating early. In addition, he studied at Oxford University for a semester during law school, and he earned a certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University.