Amy Jane Longo is a partner in Ropes & Gray’s litigation and enforcement practice group, where she focuses on SEC enforcement matters and the defense of securities and other class action cases. Amy has more than 25 years of experience in securities litigation, with significant first-chair experience both as a defense counsel and as a senior SEC trial attorney. Amy has extensive experience in the financial services, technology and healthcare/life sciences industries, both in the public and the private sector, as well as in the defense of ERISA cases and other complex business disputes.
Amy previously served as the Regional Trial Counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Los Angeles Regional Office in the Division of Enforcement. She oversaw all litigation brought by the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office—from pre-filing through trial or resolution—in federal district court and SEC administrative proceedings. While at the SEC, Amy litigated cases involving offering frauds, financial reporting and disclosures, accounting, cryptocurrency, insider trading, market manipulation, securities registration, broker dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, and the FCPA. In addition to running the trial unit, she also served as the lead trial counsel on securities enforcement matters as well as advising on investigations that led to negotiated resolutions. Amy brought numerous cases involving digital assets while at the SEC. She now advises clients on regulatory enforcement issues related to cryptocurrency, among many other aspects of enforcement, as well as handling SEC examinations.
Amy also serves as a Steering Committee member of R&G Insights Lab, a differentiated solution for corporate governance and risk in complex business environments.
Prior to joining the SEC in 2013, Amy was a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of a major international law firm, where she practiced for fifteen years with a focus on securities and derivative suits, internal and government investigations, financial services and ERISA litigation, and federal and state class actions.
Experience
Government Enforcement and Internal Investigations
- Representing investment firms in SEC investigations regarding electronic communications recordkeeping practices
- Defended investment adviser in insider trading investigation by the DOJ and SEC
- Led numerous public company internal investigations in response to government inquiries, whistleblower claims, or other allegations
- Represent individuals and entities in the financial services industry responding to inquiries from federal and state regulators
- Advise investment professionals, principals and others on regulatory issues involving cryptocurrency and blockchain
- Counsel investment firms on SEC regulatory matters, policies and procedures, compliance practices
- Represent investment firms in connection with matters before the SEC Division of Examinations
Securities and Class Action Litigation
- Representing public issuer in proposed class action involving allegedly misleading earnings disclosures
- Representing public university in putative class action regarding employee benefit plans
- Representing officers and directors in multiple actions alleging breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentations and omissions in investment materials
- Representing companies in consumer class actions alleging privacy violations under California and federal law
- Represented dozens of public companies and executives in securities class action lawsuits from inception through pretrial phase, obtaining favorable settlements before trial*
- Defended consumer health care public company and its senior officers in securities class action arising from allegations of undisclosed products liability claims*
- Defended biopharmaceutical public company in securities class action arising from alleged failure to disclose adverse FDA action with respect to company’s cancer drug*
- Defended major hospital and home health provider in shareholder derivative action arising from allegedly fraudulent Medicaid billing, reporting, and referral practices*
Government Experience
- Litigated the SEC’s first binary options case, SEC v. Banc de Binary, culminating in an $11 million resolution by a Cyprus-based issuer, accompanied by a parallel settlement with the CFTC*
- Prevailed in one of the SEC’s first cryptocurrency fraud cases, SEC v. Blockvest, obtaining a preliminary injunction and later judgment based on terminating sanctions against the ICO’s principal*
- Obtained emergency relief freezing over $30 million in alleged insider trading proceeds of foreign nationals, in the wake of the DreamWorks-Comcast merger, in SEC v. Yin*
- Represented the SEC in SEC v. Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, a settled resolution involving FCPA charges which resulted in $1 billion in fines paid to the SEC and in a parallel DOJ action*
- Prevailed in four-day bench trial against investment adviser and its principals*
- First-chaired administrative proceedings against investment advisers, and against a public company and its executives; obtained favorable settlements on the eve of trial*
- Won summary judgments in cases against architect of microcap shell factory; principals of insurance-related offering fraud; and investment adviser conducting Ponzi scheme; among others*
- Secured emergency injunctive relief in numerous offering frauds and advisory frauds, as well as insider trading cases*
- Litigated SEC action against chief executive officer of medical aesthetics public company alleged to have concealed damaging news about products’ regulatory compliance; also obtained settled cease and desist order from the issuer*
- Prosecuted SEC offering fraud case against medical device issuer and its officers, directors and employees involving allegations of misappropriation and concealment*
- In settled SEC matter, obtained administrative and financial remedies against major pharmaceutical public company and senior officers, for charges of improper revenue recognition and misleading disclosures about mail order pharmacy business*
*Experience prior to joining Ropes & Gray