Masterclass - How to Keep the SEC From Suing Your Client

Jessica Valenzuela is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a member of the Securities Litigation Practice Group. Ms. Valenzuela’s practice focuses on securities, corporate governance and other complex business litigation, including the defense of securities class actions, derivative suits and M&A-related class actions. In addition to representing clients in state and federal courts, she also represents companies, boards and special committees in government and internal investigations and counsels public and private companies and their directors and officers about a wide range of issues relating to corporate governance, insider trading, disclosure obligations, director and executive compensation matters and litigation risk and strategy.

Ms. Valenzuela has also litigated commercial disputes in international and domestic arbitrations. Her clients have included companies and individuals in the hardware, software, semiconductor, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, finance, internet and digital-media industries.

Ms. Valenzuela is ranked among the leading Securities Litigation practitioners in California by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. She is recognized in the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America? for her expertise in Litigation – securities. Ms. Valenzuela has been named to The Daily Journal’s list of “Top Women Lawyers” and The Recorder’s “Women Leaders in Tech Law.” LMG Life Sciences 2022 acknowledged Ms. Valenzuela as a “Life Sciences Star.” She was also recognized as a Benchmark Litigation “Future Star,” to the Lawyers of Color “Hot List” and Silicon Valley Latino’s “40 Under 40 Latinos2Watch.” In 2014, she was a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow.

Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Ms. Valenzuela was a partner at Cooley LLP.

Ms. Valenzuela graduated from Stanford Law School with distinction in 2002. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University in 1999, where she graduated with departmental honors.

Between a clerkship for Judge Seeborg on the Northern District of California and stints at Cooley and Wilson Sonsini, Walker spent five years in the SEC Division of Enforcement in the San Francisco Regional Office. He is currently Assistant General Counsel for Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement at Robinhood Markets.

Brad has over 20 years of experience in forensic accounting, auditing, consulting and litigation services, including serving for six years as Assistant Chief Accountant in the Enforcement Division of the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). He leads internal investigations and has a wide range of experience with accounting and financial reporting, auditing, internal controls, corruption, corporate governance and economic related issues across a variety of industries. In addition to his investigations and compliance work, Brad is often called upon to provide expert reports and testimony in regulatory and commercial dispute matters dealing with accounting and reporting, internal controls, auditor malpractice and asset tracing.

Prior to his time at the SEC, Brad was an auditor and forensic accounting specialist at a Big Four firm. Brad is a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner who frequently speaks publicly on topics related to accounting and disclosure, internal investigations, FCPA and regulatory enforcement.

Gary Y. Leung is Regional Trial Counsel in the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office, supervising all litigated enforcement actions brought by that office. Previously, Mr. Leung served as Assistant Regional Director. Prior to joining the SEC, Mr. Leung was a litigation partner at an international law firm. He earned his bachelor’s degree and law degree from Northwestern University.

An experienced litigator with over 20 years of experience in both government and the private sector, Mr. Berry focuses his practice on white collar defense and investigations, internal investigations and securities-related and other high stakes commercial litigation. He most recently served in senior-level positions in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, personally handling significant SEC enforcement matters, including first-chairing a large insider trading jury trial to verdict.

Mr. Berry joined the firm in 2019 from the SEC, where he was Associate Regional Director for the SEC’s Los Angeles office, appointed by SEC Chair Mary Jo White to co-lead that office’s Enforcement staff. In that role, he oversaw the office’s enforcement investigations and litigation, supervising over 100 investigations that led to more than 40 litigated or settled cases. Before taking on that position, Mr. Berry served as the Regional Trial Counsel for the SEC’s Los Angeles office, where he managed the office’s senior trial counsel and oversaw all of the office’s litigated cases. He personally litigated or supervised almost 100 contested SEC enforcement actions in federal district court or in administrative proceedings.

Mr. Berry worked on a wide variety of cases at the SEC, including matters involving insider trading, financial and accounting fraud, public company disclosure fraud, cyber-related fraud, investment adviser and broker fraud, offering fraud, and registration and other non-fraud violations.

Before working at the SEC, Mr. Berry was a litigation partner in the New York office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where his practice focused on commercial, real estate and bankruptcy litigation. He also served as a member of the firm’s hiring and pro bono committees.

During his career at the SEC and in private practice, Mr. Berry has litigated 26 cases to summary judgment and argued more than 40 dispositive motions and appeals in federal and state trial and appellate courts. Given his experience and background, he is a frequent speaker on securities enforcement and litigation topics.

Mr. Berry earned joint J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Virginia. He earned his B.S., cum laude, in mechanical engineering and economics from Duke University.