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Marc D. Powers

Marc Powers has led the National Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Practice Team since joining the firm in 2004 and he has practiced in securities regulation, litigation and enforcement for over 30 years. Mr. Powers is regularly consulted by clients and the media on securities laws issues due to his successful track record in representing high-profile clients in complex securities litigation and arbitration, as well as when faced with civil and criminal investigations.

In late 2008, Mr. Powers expanded his practice to include bankruptcy-related litigations. Since early in the proceeding, Mr. Powers has been part of the Baker Hostetler court-appointed counsel to the SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC. One of the largest financial frauds in recorded history, the liquidation requires global investigations and litigations seeking tens of billions of dollars in worldwide asset recovery from hedge funds, funds of funds, investment banks, other financial institutions, investment managers and other hedge fund fiduciaries. Working with several teams of attorneys, Mr. Powers' primary focus has been to investigate and coordinate strategy for the Trustee’s actions involving the Rye Select and Tremont families of funds, the Merkin funds and the Maxam feeder funds.

In June 2011, Mr. Powers and a team of bankruptcy and commercial litigators commenced a series of multibillion-dollar federal and state actions against the Blackstone Group and others representing a bankruptcy litigation trust for the failed $8 billion LBO of the Extended Stay hotel chain. The hotel chain filed for bankruptcy in June 2009.

Mr. Powers began his legal career in the public sector as an Enforcement Division Staff Attorney and Branch Chief at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Being at the SEC for five years equipped Mr. Powers with a superior understanding of complex securities laws and the regulators who enforce them. This, coupled with the experience of defending hundreds of securities investigations and civil litigations provides him the well earned confidence to aggressively yet deliberatively act on behalf of his diverse client base, including public company and financial services clients.

Other Notable Representations

• Kidder Peabody trader working with Joe Jett, in one of the first, large internal investigations in the investment banking industry;
• Public Midwestern corporation in a three-year SEC investigation (Chicago) involving alleged violations of SOX 404, Reg FD and stock manipulation;
• Douglas Faneuil, from the ImClone/Martha Stewart SEC and criminal insider trading investigations, class action and criminal trial. Mr. Faneuil’s moral and legal issues in these matters, and Mr. Powers’ representation of him, is chronicled in the 2011 book by Pulitzer Prize winning author, James W. Stewart: Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America;
• Lord Conrad Black of Hollinger International in federal and state civil litigations and other matters arising from his criminal indictment;
• A Senior Portfolio and Risk Manager at Freddie Mac on “swaptions” in a three-year SEC investigation (DC);
• NYSE floor broker’s trade association in SEC comment letters and litigation arising from the proposed Hybrid market/Archipelago merger; and
• Republic of Iraq in federal civil litigation arising from 9-11 claims.

Media Appearances

• CNN
• CNBC
• Court TV
• Bloomberg TV and Radio
• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Memberships, Awards & Positions Held

• In 2010, appointed to the Wolters Kluwer (CCH) Securities Regulation Advisory Board for 2011-12
• From 2005-2009, served as an appointed member of both the ABA and New York State Bar Presidential Task Forces on the Attorney-Client Privilege
• Selected every year since 2006 as a “Super Lawyer” in the New York metropolitan area in Securities Litigation
• In 2006, Hofstra University School of Law awarded Mr. Powers its Distinguished Alumni Award
• Co-Chair of the Committee on Securities and Exchanges at the New York County Lawyers’ Association from 1997 to 2002 and served on its Board of Directors from 2002 to 2005
• SEC’s Sustained Superior Performance Award

Articles Published

• “Insider Trading: The SEC Gets Tough,” Securities & Commodities Regulation, January 2011
• “SEC Already Has Necessary Tools to Punish Hedge Fund Fraud,” Hedge Funds and Private Equity, December 2008
• “Accountants’ Liability,” National Law Journal, April 2007
• “The Erosion of the Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product Doctrine in Civil and Criminal Investigations,” Wall Street Lawyer, July 2006
• Contributing co-author to Comment Letter by NYS Bar Task Force, in March 2006, to U.S. Sentencing Commission on deleterious effects of 2004 Amendment to Sentencing Guidelines
• “Future of Mutual Fund Governance Rules Remains Unclear,” ABA Securities Litigation Journal, Fall 2005
• “SEC Enforcement Tactics in Light of Sarbanes-Oxley—Brand New World: Has the Pendulum Swung Too Far?,” Material Matters, October 2003
• Contributing author to 2002 and 2003 comment letters by Securities and Exchanges Committee, NYCLA, regarding SEC proposed rules under SOX