Securities Attorney Impacting Asset Management Sector
As a nationally recognized securities enforcement defense attorney, Catherine Botticelli routinely handles high-stakes matters impacting the asset management sector.
For the past two decades, the Dechert LLP lawyer has represented financial services firms and corporations, their boards, committees, officers, directors, and employees before the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA and various state regulators.
Botticelli has extensive experience conducting internal investigations in the public company and asset management areas and in advising audit and special litigation committees. She has advised numerous asset management firms and mutual fund boards involved in SEC examinations, as well as SEC enforcement matters and internal investigations relating to market timing, revenue sharing, insider trading, distribution in guise, securities lending, valuation, pay-to-play, and conflicts of interest.
Botticelli says her biggest career leap was moving from New York City to Washington, D.C. “I developed a new legal specialty I likely wouldn’t have pursued in New York City,” she said. Her career advice to others is be open to new experiences. “They will take you places you never would have expected,” Botticelli said.
Botticelli has several leadership roles at Dechert. Among them, she sits on the firms’ governing policy committee and also serves as the deputy chair of talent. She helps to empower young lawyers as a contributor to the Global Women’s Initiative, fostering an inclusive and supportive environment at the firm.
Throughout her career, she has lectured and written regularly on enforcement matters and initiatives affecting public companies, as well as the regulatory risks faced by the asset management industry. She is frequently sought for authoritative comment by legal journals and industry publications. As member of President Clinton’s transition team after the 1992 election, she was also involved with vetting potential cabinet members and judges.
In addition to maintaining an active caseload and media portfolio, Botticelli’s pro bono work includes her support for the efforts of the Tahirih Justice Center in protecting immigrant women and girls who live in the U.S. and have a legitimate claim to legal status under U.S. immigration law as survivors of gender-based violence. Earlier this year, Tahirih honored Dechert as its Firm of the Year for Greater D.C.
Botticelli holds a B.A. in Economics from Fordham University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Words she lives by: “It is almost always better to play the long game.”
