Securities Industry Professionals

LAX & NEVILLE, LLP, has the experience and knowledge in representing brokers who been improperly charged by a customer, the regulators or their brokerage firm with improper or illegal activity. Similarly, we represent registered individuals when they are transitioning between firms.

If you are a securities industry professional…we will defend you if your brokerage firm is trying to fault you for its improper actions, to scapegoat you for actions it knew of and approved, or for its own lack of supervision of a customer’s account, or it claims that you are responsible for a customer’s loss which, in reality, was caused by your brokerage firm recommending or pushing the sale of a certain security based on suspect research or other reasons. Or you have been charged with insider trading, “selling away”, unauthorized trading, churning, misrepresentations, price manipulation or other improprieties by state, federal or the SRO enforcement authorities. Or perhaps you were terminated from employment by your brokerage firm employer in violation of your statutory or contractual rights.

We will keep costs and expenses in mind, and will always provide you with realistic evaluations of the claims against you. Frequently, direct settlement or mediation are the most cost effective manner of dealing with claims.

We have defended individuals, issuers, broker/dealers, hedge funds, officers and directors in connection with the following regulatory or enforcement matters:

We have particular experience in employment law matters in the financial services and broker dealer sector, including employment agreements with restrictive covenants (non-competes), confidentiality agreements, corporate policies on trade secrets, intellectual property and proprietary business information. We have extensive experience in litigating disputes between brokerage firms and registered individuals regarding contract and employment issues, including “raiding” cases, Temporary restraining orders (TRO’S), injunctions, in both federal and state courts. Such matters then proceed to expedited arbitration under FINRA rules. Such experience should be an important factor in selecting a lawyer in this regard because there are many issues that are unique to the brokerage industry because it is so highly regulated by both governmental and self regulatory bodies.

See also employment, broker transitions, and U-5 expungement pages.