Samuel J. Winer, partner and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, represents audit firms, their partners, public companies, their officers and directors, and law firms and their partners in SEC investigations. He has represented a number of these clients in related SEC or private litigation. In addition, he represents auditors in investigations conducted by the PCAOB. Samuel has assisted various special committees and audit committees of boards of public companies in investigations of financial reporting and related conduct. He also counsels securities broker-dealers and other clients on compliance with the federal and state securities laws and rules of the various self-regulatory organizations (SROs) and represents those clients in SEC enforcement proceedings and SRO disciplinary and other proceedings, litigation and grand jury investigations. Samuel is a member of the firm’s Securities Litigation, Enforcement & Regulation, and Transactional & Securities Practices. He previously served on the firm’s management committee.
Samuel has represented various securities broker-dealers in SEC and SRO investigations of sales practices, municipal securities business, equity, fixed income and financial futures trading, and back office compliance and related supervision. He has represented various broker-dealers in significant investigations of the NASDAQ market, municipal securities offerings, sales of derivatives, and financial reporting and net capital compliance.
Samuel was a law clerk to Chief Justice Thomas H. Roberts of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island from 1974 to 1975.
Recognition
Samuel has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system and has also been named a "Leading Lawyer" in Securities and Corporate Governance by the Legal Times. He was recently named to the BTI Client Service All-Star Team, who Corporate Counsel identified as providing outstanding client service. Samuel has also been selected by his peers to be included in The Best Lawyers in America© since 2006 and was named the Washington, D.C. Securities/Capital Markets Law Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers® in 2015 and 2020, and the Washington, D.C. Litigation – Securities Lawyer of the Year in 2017 and 2020. He was rated to be one of the top securities regulation attorneys in the nation by Chambers USA for 2009 - 2020, and one of the top regionally in the District of Columbia for 2007, 2008 and 2009. Samuel was selected for inclusion in the Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers® lists from 2008 – 2017.
Admissions and Professional Memberships
Samuel is a member of both the CCH Securities Regulation Advisory Board and Executive Council of the Federal Bar Association Securities Law Section. Samuel’s professional affiliations include membership in the American Bar Association (Broker-Dealer Subcommittee of the Securities Litigation Committee, Market Regulation Subcommittee of the Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities) and the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (Legal and Compliance Section). He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
Education
Publications and Presentations
A former staff attorney and special counsel with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, Samuel is a frequent speaker and has authored various publications on the defense of SEC investigations and topical issues under the federal securities laws, including: