Ex-Labaton, with four partners, unveil firm for SEC whistle blowers

Ex-Labaton, with four partners, unveil firm for SEC whistle blowers

Jordan Thomas, the head of the whistle blower practice, leads a team consisted of SEC alumni, bring clients to create new firm.

A new firm that represents SEC whistle blowers have been opened by Jordan Thomas along with four partners. Thomas is the former assistant director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who has left New York securities law firm, Labaton Sucharow.

SEC Whistle blower Advocates will be chaired by Thomas, who founded and managed Labaton's whistle blower representation practice. Robert Wilson, Richard Levine, Michael Stevenson, Timothy Warren and Timothy Warren have left Labaton with him for the launch. All of these men are also SEC alumni.

The founders believe that their law firm, which is entirely committed to SEC whistle blowers, serve as a premiere model for helping individuals report securities violations.

In addition, Thomas confirmed that all Labaton whistle blower clients are moving to the new firm, which initially will be located in New York and Washington DC. Thomas believes the SEC Whistle blower Program is heading to the right direction, as well as the maturity of the practice area.

According to Thomas, the program is normally breaking records and Chairman Gensler's whistle blower-friendly leadership makes this the perfect opportunity to launch the specialty firm. We hope to level the playing field and make sure whistle blowers in the SEC will not have personal or professional regrets for reporting offence. Being a whistle blower has never been more lucrative or dangerous than it is now.

In addition to employment protection and monetary awards, whistle blowers can also report anonymously through the SEC Whistle blower Program. Overall, 236 individuals have received award around US$1.2bn since the first award was launched in 2012.

They claim their firm has received more than US$1 billion in monetary sanctions from the SEC because of tips from their clients. A three-client team at Labaton represented by Thomas obtained the largest whistle blower award received by the SEC in 2016, more than US$83 million when Merrill Lynch was hit by a $415 million settlement for its misuse of customer funds.

After serving eight years at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Thomas joined Labaton as a litigation attorney after serving as a trial attorney for the US Department of Justice and as a judge advocate general for the US Navy.

In 2018, Levine joined Labaton after serving for more than 30 years at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where she served as associate general counsel for legal policy. In 2019, Stevenson joined the firm after a decade at the SEC, where he served as its senior special counsel. He previously served for a decade at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Richard Warren spent his entire career at the SEC and held the role of associate regional director for more than two decades before he joined Labaton in 2017. Wilson, meanwhile, joined the company after more than two decades at the SEC as the deputy assistant director.

A request for comment was not immediately returned by Labaton Sucharow, but the firm's whistle blower practice page is no longer visible online and no lawyers are listed as being affiliated with it.

In May, 2021 Jane Norberg, the former chief of the SEC's whistleblowing unit, moved to private practice by joining a US firm Arnold & Porter to reinforce its securities enforcement and litigation practice.