(202) 261-2992
(202) 261-2999 fax
lmcconathy@rkollp.com

Portrait Building,
701 8th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001-3727

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Lucinda O. McConathy

Partner

Lucinda O. McConathy joined the firm in 1998, after having served for ten years as a senior appellate lawyer for the SEC. Her practice focuses on securities litigation, regulatory investigations and counseling.

Since joining the firm, she has, among other things:

• Defended investment banks in complex securities litigation involving collateralized debt obligations;
• Defended foreign nationals sued in the United States for securities fraud in connection with a cash-out merger;
• Represented plaintiff banks, insurance companies and hedge funds bringing federal and state securities fraud actions against promoters, accounting firms, investment banks, and attorneys in connection with securitizations of asset-backed securities;
• Defended brokerage firm employees under investigation by the SEC or FINRA for alleged insider trading, fraudulent representations to investors, improper valuations, market timing, and other violations;
• Served as legal counsel in connection with an SEC receivership for the purpose of returning disgorged funds to defrauded investors;
• Counseled institutional investors in public companies on their disclosure obligations and guided their compliance efforts;
• Developed policies and procedures for hedge funds on protecting confidential information and avoiding insider trading; and
• Advised clients in determining when they may be restricted from trading.

Ms. McConathy is an experienced appellate litigator. Most recently, she filed an amicus curiae brief in New York's highest court on behalf of The Loan Syndications & Trading Association in a closely-watched case important to the debt trading market, where, as that brief argued, the New York high court decided that New York's champerty statute does not bar the assignment and assertion of litigation claims to enforce rights in related debt instruments. She also has represented a number of prominent economists who filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court concerning the constitutionality of state taxation of municipal bonds.

While at the SEC, Ms. McConathy was responsible for supervising attorneys in the appellate litigation group in the SEC’s Office of General Counsel, and for developing and advocating the Commission’s positions on a broad range of securities law, accounting, arbitration and administrative law issues. On behalf of the SEC, she regularly drafted briefs and appeared in federal district courts and appellate courts throughout the nation. She also prepared briefs on behalf of the SEC before the U.S. Supreme Court.

From 1974 to 1987, Ms. McConathy was in private practice, where she developed expertise in antitrust, class actions, appellate litigation, and land claims by Native Americans.

Ms. McConathy is admitted to the bar of the Illinois Supreme Court and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; the United States Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits; and the United States Supreme Court.