Overview
Brooke D. Clarkson is a partner and SEC, PCAOB, and FINRA litigation attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP. Brooke’s practice focuses on representing public companies and their officers and directors, audit firms and their partners and other entities and individuals in investigations and proceedings involving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and other government and non-government agencies and in private litigation. Brooke also has significant experience assisting boards of directors and their committees with internal investigations involving financial reporting and other conduct and counseling them on compliance with the federal securities laws and other applicable rules and regulations. Brooke is a member of the firm’s Securities Enforcement & Litigation and Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations Practices. She is also a member of the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) Team.
Brooke serves on the firm’s recruiting committee and is an active member in the firm’s pro bono efforts, representing individuals in Social Security Administration matters, including administrative law judge hearings, in connection with the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Clinic.
Prior to joining the firm, Brooke was a trial preparation assistant in the Frauds Bureau of the District Attorney’s Office of New York County, New York.
Education
Brooke graduated, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland School of Law (J.D. 2007; elected to the Order of the Coif) where she was a member of the Maryland Law Review. She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (B.A., 2003) with a concentration in economics and public policy through the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Recognition
- Selected for inclusion to the Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers – Rising Stars® list (2017)
Selected Representations
- Public companies and officers and directors in SEC investigations/proceedings involving accounting, compliance and disclosure issues
- Individuals in SEC investigations/proceedings involving insider trading
- Audit committees in internal investigations and related SEC investigations/proceedings involving accounting, compliance and disclosure issues
- National and regional audit firms and partners in SEC and PCAOB investigations/proceedings
- Part of a team appointed to be an independent consultant in connection with an SEC consent judgment
Selected Publications & Presentations
Brooke is a contributing author to the Securities Enforcement: Counseling and Defense treatise (published by Matthew Bender) and the Accountants’ Liability treatise (published by Practicing Law Institute).
- Panelist, "SEC Regulatory and Enforcement Priorities Under the Biden Administration," Association of Corporate Counsel (June 23, 2021)
Admissions
- Maryland
- District of Columbia.