William E. Donnelly

William Donnelly focuses his practice on the representation of individuals and entities in connection with agency and congressional investigations, internal investigations, regulatory and private civil litigation, arbitrations and compliance matters arising under securities, corporate and banking laws. Mr. Donnelly also regularly advises broker-dealer and investment advisers concerning their compliance obligations under the federal securities laws and self-regulatory organization rules. Mr. Donnelly has extensive experience in managing independent consultant engagements resulting from settlements of regulatory enforcement actions.

Mr. Donnelly was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© (2014 – 2022) in the field of Securities Litigation. He also has been recognized as a Washington DC Super Lawyer.

Among the notable regulatory, congressional and other investigations in which Mr. Donnelly has represented entities and individuals are the following:

Represent special litigation committee of board of directors of Fortune-50 public company in investigating and responding to shareholder demands to renegotiate merger agreement
Representation of a public company in an SEC financial reporting investigation that was resolved through entry of an administrative cease-and-desist order
Representation of the former chief financial officer of a public company in an SEC financial reporting investigation in which an enforcement action was brought but the client was not charged and in related class action litigation
Representation of the audit committee of the board of directors of a public company in an internal investigation of the circumstances requiring a restatement of prior financial statements
Representation of the controller and deputy controller of a public company in an SEC financial reporting investigation that was resolved through the issuance of an administrative cease-and-desist order
Representation of the president of national bank in testimony before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Representation of an advisory director of a public company in a securities fraud action brought by a bankruptcy receiver.

Among the notable independent consultant/monitor engagements in which Mr. Donnelly has played a major role are the following:

An engagement for a global financial institution which had entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ and a related SEC settlement arising out of allegations that the institution had opened accounts for US persons who were seeking to conceal income from US tax authorities and had acted as a US broker-dealer without being registered as such
An engagement for a major financial institution which was one of the parties to the Global Research Settlement entered into with the SEC, the NASD and the states
An engagement for a major financial institution that had settled an SEC enforcement action alleging that the institution had failed to preserve and promptly produce certain email communications with customers in accordance with the broker-dealer books and records requirements of the federal securities laws