Co-chair of the firm’s financial services litigation and enforcement practice, Amy Sparrow represents clients in the financial services industry in litigation, internal investigations, regulatory actions and employment-related disputes. She defends clients in regulatory actions brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), state securities regulators, and other federal and state regulators. She also practices in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels in various litigation actions in financial industry matters and provides compliance counseling to clients.
Amy routinely manages regulatory investigations and enforcement actions before the SEC, FINRA and state securities regulators involving allegations relating to complex products, systemic issues, supervision and sales practice violations. She also conducts internal investigations with respect to alleged violations, including whistleblower claims, alleged Ponzi schemes and misappropriation of funds.
Amy also regularly represents clients in financial industry matters in litigation in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels involving alleged violations of state and federal securities laws and related rules and regulations. In addition, Amy provides compliance counseling to financial services firms and assists clients in drafting and revising policies and procedures to comply with state and federal securities laws, rules and regulations.
Amy is a member of the firm’s e-discovery team, which develops cost-effective strategies for electronic document management and discovery.
Featured Representative Matters
Represented a futures commission merchant in a state court action by traders seeking over $1 billion in damages relating to trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Represented a broker-dealer and registered investment adviser in defense of a $100 million FINRA claim by a municipal pension plan regarding the pension plan’s investments in proprietary asset management platforms and hedge funds.
Represented a broker-dealer wholesale distributor in defense of a former employee’s claim of defamation before FINRA and claim of discrimination in federal court.
Represented a financial services company in a state court action involving allegations that a selling agent fraudulently transferred the ownership of a policy and changed the beneficiary designation to himself.
Represented a broker-dealer in a federal court matter and a FINRA arbitration relating to its registered representative’s alleged misappropriation of a customer’s funds.
Represented a broker-dealer and registered principals in a regulatory matter involving structured products.
Represented a broker-dealer and registered representatives in a regulatory matter involving alleged short-term municipal bond transactions.
Represented a broker-dealer in a FINRA inquiry involving allegations of trade reporting violations.
Represented a broker-dealer in a FINRA inquiry involving allegations of failure to supervise transactions resulting in concentrated positions in a single industry.
Represented a broker-dealer and registered representatives of a broker-dealer in connection with a FINRA inquiry involving the alleged alteration of documents produced in response to a Rule 8210 request.
Represented a broker-dealer and its registered representative founder in a regulatory investigation involving alleged failures to disclose a promissory note with a hedge fund and performance fees received from the hedge fund in soliciting investors for a feeder fund.
Represented a broker-dealer in an SEC investigation involving closed-end funds.
Represented a broker-dealer in connection with a state regulatory investigation involving the alleged failure to supervise a registered representative’s outside business activities and deficient production of documents to the state regulator.
Represented a broker-dealer and registered representatives of a broker-dealer in connection with a state regulatory investigation involving alleged short-term trading of Class A mutual funds.
Represented a broker-dealer in connection with a regulatory investigation involving the alleged failure to supervise transactions that involved churning, reverse churning and unauthorized trading.
Clerkships
Clerkship to Judge D. Michael Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
