Bio

John Sakhleh is a partner in the Securities Enforcement and Regulatory group, which received the 2019 Chambers USA Award for Financial Services Regulation Firm of the Year, and was named the Law Firm of the Year for Securities Regulation in 2020 and 2017 by U.S. News – Best Lawyers. John advises a wide array of financial services firms including investment and commercial banks, broker-dealers, investment advisers and private/hedge funds — on a broad variety of regulatory, enforcement, compliance and transactional matters. John regularly advises on transactions involving U.S. and non-U.S. financial services and FinTech companies. His experience includes advising on transactional and regulatory matters in connection with merger and acquisitions of broker-dealers, investment advisers and other FinTech companies. These complex projects include advising on compliance-related integration issues, technology conversions of systems, migration of customer accounts and trading platforms, restructuring of major business units and obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals in strategic transactions. John also advises numerous financial institutions on trading and technology platforms in connection with (i) evaluating the broker-dealer and investment adviser registration requirements, and (ii) advising on the formation and regulatory approval process for newly formed broker-dealers and investment advisers with the SEC, FINRA, other self-regulatory organizations and clearing agencies. John’s regulatory and compliance-related practice includes advising clients on general broker-dealer registration and SRO membership, dealer/trader/finder issues, FinTech/trading platforms, clearing firms and related financial responsibility requirements, FINRA advertising rules, Regulation BI, outsourcing arrangements and non U.S. broker-dealer/cross-border registration requirements (Rule 15a-6 and related no-action letters), books and records/electronic recordkeeping issues, Regulation ATS and supervisory liability for CCOs and senior officers. John’s practice also includes a concentration on enforcement defense and regulatory counseling matters, in which he brings to bear his extensive knowledge of the regulatory schemes governing securities market and regulatory issues for broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment funds and FinTech trading platforms. His securities enforcement practice has covered a broad range of enforcement matters, including investigations of securities fraud, investment adviser misconduct, broker-dealer matters, municipal bond-related trading, capital deficiencies, conversion/integration issues and trading-related investigations, including spoofing. John has defended a wide variety of clients in investigations before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA). Prior to joining the firm, John worked for the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. During his time with the SEC, John was involved with, among other things, the SEC’s market-timing and late trading, proprietary trading and best execution investigations and examinations. Prior to joining the SEC, John worked for a national law firm where he focused on investment company, investment adviser and hedge fund-related issues. John also worked at a large national accounting firm as a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).