SEC Co-Chief of Asset Management Unit Heads to Dechert in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 12, 2018—High-ranking government official Anthony S. Kelly, former Co-Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has joined the Washington, D.C. office of Dechert LLP. Drawing on his experience leading the nationwide SEC enforcement unit overseeing the asset management industry, he will focus primarily on asset management enforcement and litigation as part of the firm’s white collar and securities litigation practice.  

Mr. Kelly’s expansive skillset bolsters the firm’s asset management enforcement and litigation capabilities, while also situating him to work alongside Dechert’s leading global financial services group, which advises across the full range of fund structures around the world.

He is a key addition to Dechert’s rapidly growing global litigation practice, which has added 20 high-profile litigation partners in a little over a year and a half. The firm’s high-value and unique practices are comprised of litigators in 21 offices across the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. 

Mr. Kelly’s distinguished career at the SEC included supervising the first case under the agency’s authority to bring anti-retaliation enforcement actions. He also oversaw investigations and enforcement actions across various asset management-related issues, including fund valuation, fund distribution and 12b-1 fees, trading away and best
execution, trade allocation, cross trading and principal transactions, investment adviser and broker-dealer registration and insider trading.  

“Anthony has a long history at the SEC and his institutional knowledge of government practices will be an important asset for our clients as they face their toughest challenges on a national and international level,” said David Kelley, co-leader of Dechert’s white collar and securities litigation practice.

Robert Helm, a leader of Dechert’s financial services practice group, echoed that sentiment, saying, “Anthony’s experience and judgment gained by overseeing the SEC’s enforcement program for the funds industry will be invaluable to our clients.”

“I am delighted to join Dechert,” Mr. Kelly said. “The firm represents a majority of the world’s largest global asset managers and has a talented bench of regulatory lawyers, along with top-notch enforcement lawyers and litigators, whom I am excited to work alongside as I start the next step of my career.”

Mr. Kelly made his way through the SEC’s ranks. He joined in 2000 as a securities compliance examiner in the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations’ Broker-Dealer Group. Following graduation from law school, he joined the Enforcement Division, serving as a staff attorney and senior counsel. In May 2011, he served as a special counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets’ Office of Trading Practices before re-joining the Enforcement Division in April 2012.  He was promoted to Assistant Director in the Asset Management Unit in August 2012, and named Co-Chief in March 2016.

Mr. Kelly was honored with the SEC’s Chairman’s Award for Excellence in 2010 and the Ellen B. Ross Award in 2009. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.B.A., summa cum laude, from The George Washington University.

Other recent additions to Dechert’s burgeoning global litigation practice include distinguished white collar and investigations partners David Kelley, Benjamin Rosenberg, Michael McGinley and Roger Burlingame, acclaimed product liability partners Sheila Birnbaum, Mark Cheffo, Douglas Fleming, Hayden Coleman, Douglas Dunham and Bert Wolff, renowned international trade partners Amanda DeBusk and Melissa Duffy, and elite commercial litigation partners Laurent Martinet, Christina Sarchio, David Stern, Stephen Surgeoner and Dorothy Cory-Wright.

About Dechert

Dechert is a leading global law firm with 27 offices around the world. We advise on matters and transactions of the greatest complexity, bringing energy, creativity and efficient management of legal issues to deliver commercial and practical advice for clients.