Charu A. Chandrasekhar

Partner

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New York

Tel: +1 212 909 6774

Overview

Charu A. Chandrasekhar is a litigation partner based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense and ... Read Full Biography

Experience

Cybersecurity and SEC Regulatory Counseling
- Compliance counseling for numerous public companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers on the SEC’s proposed cybersecurity rules.
- Off-system communications regulatory compliance counseling, policy reviews, employee training, and remediation for numerous global asset managers, financial services firms, and public companies.
- A global private equity firm with SEC cybersecurity regulatory compliance counseling.
- A global private equity firm with ongoing regulatory compliance counseling and cybersecurity policy reviews.
- A multinational technology firm with SEC cybersecurity regulatory compliance counseling and cybersecurity policy reviews.
- A prominent broker-dealer on insider trading regulatory compliance.
SEC and DOJ Examinations and Enforcement Defense
- A broker-dealer and registered investment adviser in an SEC cybersecurity examination.
- A multinational financial services company in an SEC investigation into its broker-dealer sales practices.
- A global investment adviser in an SEC investigation regarding retention of employees’ work-related messages.
- A major investment bank in a group settlement with the SEC and CFTC regarding retention of employees’ work-related messages.
- A trading platform in an SEC investigation regarding registration matters.
- A prominent broker-dealer in FINRA and SEC AML and cybersecurity investigations.
- Ernst & Young in an SEC settlement regarding misconduct in relating to ethics and continuing professional education training.
- A financial services executive in SEC investigation concerning registration of securities offerings.
- A major university in responding to SEC and DOJ insider trading investigations.
- A prominent global hedge fund adviser in an SEC enforcement investigation involving fixed income best execution issues.
- A global consulting company in regulatory investigations concerning disclosure practices.

Education

Harvard Law School, J.D.
Yale University, B.A.

Charu A. Chandrasekhar is a litigation partner based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense and Data Strategy & Security Groups. Her practice focuses on securities enforcement and government investigations defense and cybersecurity regulatory counseling and defense. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Chandrasekhar served as an Assistant Regional Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and as the Chief of the Division’s Retail Strategy Task Force. Ms. Chandrasekhar also served as a Senior Advisor and Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit. During her eight years at the SEC, Ms. Chandrasekhar successfully investigated and brought numerous high-profile enforcement cases, including multiple matters involving cutting-edge and complex practices across the securities markets and federal securities laws. She supervised and participated in investigations involving insider trading by corporate insiders, broker-dealers, and hedge funds; antifraud and regulatory violations by stock exchanges, alternative trading systems, and other trading venues; investment advisers; cybersecurity and digital assets; and market manipulation. Her notable matters included the Commission’s largest settlement against a dark pool; one of the Commission’s largest stock exchange settlements, which involved the Commission’s first-ever charge under Regulation SCI; charges against an underwriter in connection with one of the largest offering frauds involving an international issuer listed on an American securities exchange; and multiple insider trading cases with parallel criminal matters. In her service at the SEC in two national enforcement groups, Ms. Chandrasekhar routinely investigated and coordinated matters with senior SEC enforcement officials and enforcement staff from the SEC’s Home Office and eleven regional offices. Ms. Chandrasekhar’s government service included coordination on parallel matters with the United States Department of Justice, the New York Attorney General’s Office, FINRA, and other domestic and international securities regulators. She also consulted routinely on matters involving registered investment advisers and broker-dealers with the New York Regional Office’s Division of Examinations. Ms. Chandrasekhar received the Chairman’s Award for Main Street Investors for her accomplishments on the Retail Strategy Task Force, as well as several Enforcement Division Director’s Awards for her successful enforcement matters.Prior to joining government, Ms. Chandrasekhar was a counsel at a major international law firm and clerked for the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor when Justice Sotomayor sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ms. Chandrasekhar received her J.D. cum laude in 2004 from Harvard Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Liberties-Civil Rights Law Review, and her B.A. cum laude from Yale University in 1998.