Arbitration & litigation
Securities disputes in the forums where they actually get decided. No bulldogs, no war metaphors, no promises about how this ends — just the work of making the strongest available version of your position, on the record, on time.
Where these go.
The forum shapes everything: the rules, the discovery, the decision-maker, the timeline and the realistic range of outcomes. Knowing which one you are in is the first substantive question.
FINRA arbitration
Customer and industry disputes involving member firms and associated persons. Limited discovery, a panel rather than a jury, and an award that is difficult to appeal.
AAA & JAMS
Contractual arbitration and mediation where an agreement sends the dispute there. Procedure is largely what the clause and the panel make it.
State & federal courts
Trial and appellate litigation, including securities claims, contract and business disputes, and appeals from decisions made below.
Administrative
Regulatory enforcement proceedings before securities regulators, with their own procedure and their own consequences for registration.
Alternative investments
Disputes arising from private programs — energy, real estate, DST and TIC structures, debt offerings — where the documents and the diligence file do most of the work.
Local counsel
California local counsel representation for out-of-state firms and lawyers who need someone admitted here who already knows the subject matter.
Both sides of the caption
This practice represents broker-dealers, registered representatives, investment advisers, issuers and sponsors, and it also represents customers and investors who believe something went wrong. Those are genuinely different engagements with different obligations, and a conflicts check exists precisely so that everybody knows which one this is before anything confidential is said.
What the work actually is
Reading the file before forming a theory. Finding out what the documents say rather than what everyone remembers. Understanding what the other side has to prove and what they can actually prove. Making an honest assessment of settlement value early, because a realistic assessment in month two is worth more than a confident one in month twenty.
Related practice areas
Someone filed something.
Tell us the forum and roughly when the response is due. Hold the details until a conflicts check is complete and an engagement is confirmed in writing.
Start the conversationFootnotes
- Forum descriptions are generalized. Procedure varies by forum, panel, jurisdiction and the terms of any arbitration agreement.
- No result is promised, predicted or implied anywhere on this page or this website.