Christopher Conte to Join Steptoe from the SEC

(Washington, DC) — Steptoe & Johnson LLP announced today that Christopher Conte, Associate Director of the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will join the firm following a distinguished 17-year career in government. Mr. Conte will be a partner in Steptoe’s Washington office, where he worked as an associate from 1988 to 1992. 

“We are excited to welcome Chris and are delighted to add an attorney of his stature to the firm,” said Roger E. Warin, Chairman of Steptoe’s Executive Committee. “His depth and breadth of experience leading a wide range of SEC enforcement investigations, together with his understanding of the SEC’s approach to enforcement and the agency’s key priorities, will be a valuable contribution to a number of our practices and the clients they serve.”

During his career at the SEC, Mr. Conte has overseen and conducted investigations and enforcement actions in all major SEC program areas. His work has included matters involving accounting fraud and disclosure violations, including options backdating misconduct, illicit payments under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), unlawful IPO allocation and manipulative short-selling practices, and insider trading by corporate insiders and market, legal, and accounting professionals. Mr. Conte also supervised actions involving fraud and compliance violations by broker-dealers and investment advisers, including unlawful market timing, broker-dealer e-mail preservation and production violations, audit failures, auditor independence violations, and violations of the SEC’s proxy rules, tender offer rules, and rules requiring individuals and entities to report securities holdings. Mr. Conte coordinated numerous enforcement matters with other federal law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ) and US Attorney offices, and self-regulatory organizations, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Mr. Conte will join an extensive group of Steptoe attorneys focused on helping clients comply with increasingly complex federal regulation of businesses and a heightened enforcement environment marked by close collaboration between the DOJ and the SEC. Mr. Conte will work with Steptoe’s Securities Enforcement and Litigation practice, teaming with the firm’s top-ranked FCPA and White-Collar Criminal Defense practices in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix to provide coast-to-coast representation for public companies, financial institutions, hedge funds, market professionals, officers and directors, accountants and other individuals facing SEC, DOJ, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, state or self-regulatory organization enforcement investigations or proceedings.

Mr. Conte received his J.D. from The Catholic University of America and his B.A. from Brown University. He will begin practicing at Steptoe this September.

About Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm widely recognized for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in guiding business transactions. The firm has 500 lawyers in offices in Beijing, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, and Washington. For more information, visit steptoe.com.

For more information, please contact:

• Frank Burke
• Phil Khinda
• Ed Krauland
• Lucinda Low
• Reid Weingarten