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. Ms. Chandrasekhar has significant experience representing global financial institutions, private equity firms, hedge funds, broker-dealers, public companies, and audit and accounting firms in a broad range of securities-related government investigations, examinations, and enforcement matters. She frequently represents clients in matters before the SEC and FINRA involving allegations of securities fraud, investment adviser and broker-dealer regulations, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, accounting and corporate disclosure issues, and whistleblowers. She also advises public companies, investment advisers, and broker-dealers on the development and implementation of policies and programs designed to ensure compliance with the federal securities laws, and has substantial experience in counseling clients on the SEC’s cybersecurity regulations, recordkeeping requirements, and artificial intelligence exams and enforcement.
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.