Partner, Cohen & Gresser
Firm co-founder Mark S. Cohen is the managing partner of C&G’s New York office, and head of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration and White Collar Defense & Regulation groups. Mark’s litigation practice includes complex commercial disputes, real estate and construction litigation, securities litigation, employment litigation, and antitrust litigation. He also represents companies, corporate boards, board committees, and individual clients in white collar criminal cases, federal and state regulatory proceedings, and corporate internal investigations.
Mark is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He maintains an active trial practice of both civil and criminal cases and has tried approximately 25 cases to verdict. He led C&G teams to two of the most significant victories in highly contested cases of the past five years. In one case, C&G achieved a complete victory against the SEC following a two week jury trial in the representation of a former hedge fund analyst in an insider trading case. Mark was subsequently selected as a Litigator of the Week by AmLaw Litigation Daily. Mark also led a C&G team to a landmark victory in a high-profile FCPA case on behalf of a former investment analyst with one of the world’s largest publicly traded hedge funds, which resulted in C&G’s nomination for Global Investigation Review’s Most Important Court Case of the Year award in 2018.
Since 2011, he has served as the court-appointed monitor for the largest fire department in the country. The monitorship involves implementing the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York’s remedial order following a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.
Prior to co-founding Cohen & Gresser, Mark served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and formerly practiced with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where he was a Note Editor of the Law Review.
Mark has been ranked by the Chambers USA guide as a Leading Individual in the white collar crime and government investigations category each year since 2013 and has been recognized in its securities litigation category since 2016. Chambers USA also nominated Mark for its White Collar Crime & Government Investigations individual award in 2016. Clients refer to Mark as “a skilled litigator” who is “smart, practical, persuasive, and diplomatic.” He is recognized in The Legal 500’s U.S. guide in the categories of corporate investigations and general commercial disputes, and is ranked as a Leading Lawyer in the securities litigation defense and white collar criminal defense categories. The Legal 500 commentary describes him as “an outstanding trial lawyer and strategist who has excellent judgment,” and “highly intelligent and strategic, great on his feet, has outstanding judgment and instincts, a calming and reassuring presence as a counselor, and is appropriately aggressive and tough when and as needed.” The guide has further described Mark as a “formidable” trial lawyer within the securities litigation space. Both Chambers and The Legal 500 commentary refer to Mark as an excellent trial attorney noting that “he stands out for his combination of skill, thoughtfulness and tenacity during investigations with seasoned trial expertise during litigation.” Mark is regularly recognized by The Best Lawyers in America for white collar criminal defense, and is a former member of Law360‘s editorial advisory board for its white collar coverage. He has also been named a Local Litigation Star in each edition of Benchmark Litigation since 2012. Super Lawyers has recognized Mark on its annual New York Metro Super Lawyers list for business litigation each year since 2008, has named him one of the top 100 lawyers in the New York metropolitan area each year since 2014, and named him one of the top 10 lawyers in the New York Metropolital area in 2023. Mark has also been recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Litigators in America.
For many years, he has been a visiting lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris, teaching a course to French law students on U.S. white collar criminal law.
Commonwealth Professor Law and Business Advising, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Professor Christian Johnson has taught law for over twenty-five years at Loyola Chicago, Utah, and Widener, and is a former law school dean. He is consultant for CFTC (Office of Commissioner Kristin Johnson) and was also a consultant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Professor Johnson regularly serves as an expert witness and does training and consulting for large financial institutions on capital markets finance documentation. He publishes extensively on capital markets and corporate finance, having written (and co-written) numerous books and monographs and more than three dozen articles on these topics. Prior to teaching law, he was an associate for Milbank, Tweed in New York, and Mayer, Brown in Chicago. He was also a CPA for Price Waterhouse. Professor Johnson received his law degree from Columbia Law School where he was the Executive Editor of the Columbia Law Review.
Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP; Special Professor of Law, Maurice A. Dean School of Law, Hofstra University
Gary E. Kalbaugh is a nationally recognized leader in commodities, futures, and derivatives law.
Gary is a partner in the New York office of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP as well as a Special Professor of Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, where he teaches derivatives law and banking law.
A preeminent authority in the derivatives field, Gary is the author of the principal treatise Derivatives Law and Regulation (3rd ed. 2021) and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Futures and Derivatives Law Report, the foremost industry publication. He is a past chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on the Regulation of Futures and Derivatives and has over 15 years of experience as a professor teaching derivatives and banking law.
Gary is the leading derivatives lawyer in the digital assets space, and one of few to truly understand the technical side of emerging financial technology. He serves on the CFTC’s Future of Finance Subcommittee, reflecting his recognized leadership at the intersection of financial regulation and emerging technologies. A frequent speaker, writer, and commentator on derivatives, banking law, artificial intelligence, and digital assets regulation, he has served as conference co-chair for the American Bar Association’s “Artificial Intelligence and Derivatives Market” conference and regularly speaks at major industry conferences on cutting-edge issues in financial regulation and technology. Gary is sought after as a thought leader on the evolving landscape of digital asset regulation and the regulatory implications of AI in financial markets.
At ING, Gary served as Deputy General Counsel and Director, where he chaired swap dealer and security-based swap dealer regulatory committees and provided strategic leadership on U.S., European, and other regulations impacting the organization. He had global responsibility for U.S. derivatives regulatory issues and maintained strong relationships with regulators. Gary also co-developed ING legal’s global artificial intelligence training program and was responsible for U.S. regulatory issues relating to ING’s blockchain-based pilot programs and crypto initiatives.
Previously, Gary served as a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School and held senior roles at WestLB, where he was executive director, counsel, and chief U.S. data protection officer and chaired the global Dodd-Frank and underwriting committees. He began his career as an associate at a notable international firm.
Assistant United States Attorney, United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
Nicolas Roos is an Assistant United States Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Roos joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2016, and has been a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and the Public Corruption Unit. Mr. Roos was one of the lead prosecutors in United States v. Samuel Bankman-Fried and in the other criminal cases relating to the collapse of FTX. He previously also worked on criminal prosecutions relating to insider trading in cryptocurrencies and digital tokens, including United States v. Nathaniel Chastain and United States v. Ishan Wahi. Mr. Roos is a graduate of the University of Vermont, the University of Chicago, and Stanford Law School.
Head of Corporate Governance, Strive Asset Management
Justin Danhof is the Head of Corporate Governance at Strive Asset Management. Previously, he served as General Counsel for the National Center for Public Policy Research, as well as Director of the Center’s Free Enterprise Project. He also worked in the Miami-Dade State’s Attorney’s Office in the Economic Crimes and Cybercrimes Division, for the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development and at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Danhof’s work has been widely published and quoted in major newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Politico, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Washington Post. He has also appeared on the Fox News Channel, One America News Network, and the Fox Business Channel, among others.
Mr. Danhof is a member of the Federalist Society and Christian Legal Society.
Mr. Danhof is a graduate of Bentley University (Waltham, MA), where he received a Bachelor of Science in economics and finance and pitched for three seasons on the school’s NCAA Division II baseball team. Mr. Danhof completed his graduate studies at the University of Miami School of Law where he received his Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in Taxation.
Mr. Danhof is licensed to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C.
Founder, Paredes Strategies LLC
Troy A. Paredes is the founder of Paredes Strategies LLC. From 2008-2013, Mr. Paredes was a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, having been appointed by President George W. Bush. At the SEC, Mr. Paredes was a strong advocate for small business and the JOBS Act, for solving the information overload problem of securities law disclosure, and for rigorous cost-benefit analysis. He also consistently expressed concerns about the overregulation and overreach of the Dodd-Frank Act. Since leaving government, Mr. Paredes has had an active consulting practice. Mr. Paredes advises on financial regulation, corporate governance, compliance, and governmental and regulatory affairs. He also serves as an expert and adviser in regulatory enforcement investigations and actions and in private litigation involving securities law and corporate law, and he has been an independent compliance consultant/monitor. Before becoming an SEC Commissioner, Mr. Paredes was a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and a professor of business (by courtesy) at Washington University’s Olin Business School. Currently, he is the Distinguished Policy Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Next year he will be a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at NYU School of Law. Mr. Paredes is the author of numerous academic articles on financial regulation, corporate governance, innovation, and behavioral economics. He also is a co-author (beginning with the 4th edition) of a multi-volume securities regulation treatise with Louis Loss and Joel Seligman entitled Securities Regulation. Mr. Paredes serves on the board of directors of Electronifie Inc. and is a member of the board of advisors of StreetShares, Inc. Mr. Paredes holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Berkeley and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Commissioner, United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Hester M. Peirce was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on January 11, 2018.
Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was a Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues. Commissioner Peirce served as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins. She also worked as a Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Peirce was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) and clerked for Judge Roger Andewelt on the Court of Federal Claims.
Commissioner Peirce earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Case Western Reserve University and her JD from Yale Law School.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Former United States Secretary of Labor
Eugene Scalia is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, co-chair of the firm’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Group, and a senior member of the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group and Financial Institutions Practice Group. He returned to the firm after serving as U.S. Secretary of Labor from September 2019 to January 2021.
Mr. Scalia has a nationally-prominent practice in two areas: Labor and employment law, and advice and litigation regarding the regulatory obligations of federal administrative agencies. He also has extensive appellate experience. Federal regulatory actions he has challenged include the SEC’s “proxy access” rule; the CFTC’s “position limits’” rule; MetLife’s designation as “too big to fail” by the Financial Services Oversight Council; the Labor Department’s “fiduciary” rule; and OSHA’s “cooperative compliance program.”
As Labor Secretary, Mr. Scalia engaged at the highest level with national employment policy and matters affecting the financial services industry and international trade, overseeing the enforcement and administration of more than 180 federal employment laws covering more than 150 million workers and 10 million workplaces. He also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He was closely involved in the drafting and implementation of the CARES Act and other coronavirus-related legislation. Laws administered by the Labor Department also include the workplace safety requirements of OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, federal minimum wage and overtime protections, the anti-discrimination requirements applicable to federal contractors, and ERISA’s protection of the more than $11 trillion held in employee retirement plans and health plans.
Mr. Scalia served from 2002 to 2003 as Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, with responsibility for all Labor Department litigation and legal advice on rulemakings and administrative law. He is the only person to have served as both Solicitor and Secretary of Labor.
He also served at the U.S. Department of Justice as a Special Assistant to the Attorney General, receiving the Department’s Edmund J. Randolph Award in 1993.
In private practice, Mr. Scalia has represented employers in high-profile matters under the National Labor Relations Act and in class actions and collective actions under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, ERISA, and federal and state wage hour laws. He has extensive experience in federal district court, the courts of appeals, and in the arbitration of employment disputes. He has been a leading authority on “whistleblower” investigations and litigation since the 2002 enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Mr. Scalia also counsels employers on reductions-in-force and the proper conduct of harassment and discrimination investigations. He has provided pro bono representation to workers in discrimination matters, wrongful separation disputes, and other matters.
Mr. Scalia is a Senior Fellow of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a federal agency that makes recommendations to Congress and the Executive Branch on ways to improve the administrative process. He is the author of more than 30 articles and papers on labor and employment law, administrative law, and other subjects. Among other accolades, he has been named an “Employment MVP,” a “Securities MVP,” and an “Appellate MVP” by Law360. The National Law Journal recognized Mr. Scalia as a “Visionary” for his litigation against financial regulatory agencies, and the Nation magazine has called him a “fearsome litigator.” He has been a Lecturer in labor and employment law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Mr. Scalia graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. He graduated With Distinction from the University of Virginia in 1985 and was a speechwriter for Education Secretary William J. Bennett before attending law school. Mr. Scalia and his wife Trish have seven children.
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