Philip S. Khinda

Partner

• pkhinda@steptoe.com
• vCard
• Washington Office

Philip S. Khinda is a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, and focuses on securities enforcement and corporate governance matters as well as internal investigations. He also has an active regulatory counseling practice, and particular experience in resolving matters involving governance, asset management, financial reporting and accounting, and regulatory compliance issues, both in the US and overseas.

Mr. Khinda regularly assists corporate boards and management in conducting internal investigations and addressing sensitive corporate governance issues.  He also represents and defends public companies, their officers and directors, regulated entities, hedge funds and others in matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice and other federal and state prosecutors and regulatory authorities.

Mr. Khinda has advised and represented individual, corporate, and board committee clients in connection with many of the most significant securities matters in the last decade, including publicly-disclosed government investigations and litigation involving Rite Aid, Enron, Adelphia, Global Crossing and AOL Time Warner, among others, appearing before US and international securities regulators on their behalf. Over the last five years, he also assisted a series of mutual fund boards and board committees that investigated matters underlying the highest-profile and most complex government investigations and actions ever to face the investment management community.

Mr. Khinda is as well known for the many government investigations and inquiries he has resolved for clients without any charges ever being filed, or any public disclosure of the government's interest ever being made. Those clients have included a broad group of public companies, private equity firms, hedge funds, and investment advisers as well as corporate executives and public figures. While Mr. Khinda has served as successor and settlement counsel for a variety of institutional and individual clients, no corporation or individual that he has represented from the outset of an investigation has ever been sued by the SEC or indicted. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Khinda served as a staff attorney and senior counsel with the SEC's Division of Enforcement, where he led a number of high-profile and sensitive investigations, including financial fraud, investment management, market manipulation, and insider trading matters. He was previously an analyst and associate with Morgan Stanley & Company in New York. 

Mr. Khinda currently serves as co-chair of the Investigations and Litigation subcommittee of the ABA’s Corporate Governance committee. Active in international matters, he also serves on the Financial Services Committee of the US-India Business Council. For the last ten years, Mr. Khinda has also served as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, and has published and taught on financial reporting and accounting, corporate governance, crisis management, securities regulation, and SEC enforcement matters. He is a frequent public speaker on these topics as well.

Select News & Events

• "Internal Investigations and Board Committee Reviews: Dealing with Difficult Matters in Difficult Times," Moderator of Panel, ABA Annual Meeting, Chicago (July 2009)
• "Citigroup and Countrywide: Their expected effects in the Boardroom and the Courtroom," ABA Webcast (June 2009)
• "Corporate Governance and Board Oversight" at "The Indian Opportunity," a US-India Business Council/FWA event, New York (May 2009)
• "Hedge Funds: A Brave New World of Regulation and Enforcement," Securities Docket Webcast (May 2009)
• Philip Khinda Joins Steptoe's DC Office
• Internal Investigations, Stanford Directors' College, Palo Alto, California (June 2007)
• Co-Chair, Executive Enterprise Institute Annual SEC Enforcement Conference, Moderator of SEC Enforcement Staff Panel and presenter on Corporate Governance (Chicago, June 2007 and New York, May 2007)

Selected Publications

• The Rise and Rise of the NYAG
  May 2010, Securities Docket
• International Law Advisory - Flurry of FCPA Cases Closes Out 2009; Enforcement Continues Apace in Early 2010
  March 16, 2010
• Private Investor Frederic Bourke Sentenced to Prison and $1 Million Fine
  November 16, 2009, International Law Advisory
• International Law Advisory - SEC Adopts Several Expansive Applications of the Federal Securities Laws in the Recent FCPA Enforcement Action Against Nature’s Sunshine and Two Senior Executives
  September 8, 2009
• International Law Advisory - Private Investor Convicted for Involvement in Scheme to Bribe Officials in the Republic of Azerbaijan
  July 22, 2009
• The Nuances of Securities Reform
  March 30, 2009, New York Law Journal
• International Law Advisory - Halliburton and KBR Agree to Near-Record Penalties; Additional Indictment Unsealed as US Seeks Extradition of UK Agents
  March 19, 2009
• International Law Advisory - 2008 Year End FCPA Round-Up—The Shoes Just Keep Dropping
  January 27, 2009