Five Senior SEC Alumni Launch the Nation’s First Law Firm Exclusively Dedicated to Representing SEC Whistleblowers

Move Reflects a Bullish View of the SEC Whistleblower Program and its Future

New York, NY January 4, 2022—Established by five former senior SEC attorneys, SEC Whistleblower Advocates PLLC is the nation’s first law firm exclusively dedicated to representing SEC whistleblowers. The founders are Jordan Thomas, Chair, (former SEC Assistant Director), Richard Levine (former SEC Associate General Counsel), Michael Stevenson (former PCAOB Deputy General Counsel and SEC Senior Special Counsel), Timothy Warren (former SEC Associate Regional Director) and Robert Wilson (former SEC Deputy Assistant Director).

The founders strongly believe a law firm that is established for, structured around and exclusively limited to SEC whistleblowers is the premier model for serving courageous individuals who wish to report securities violations. The new firm also reflects a bullish view of the SEC Whistleblower Program’s future and the natural evolution of the maturing practice area.

“With the SEC Whistleblower Program regularly breaking records and Chairman Gensler’s whistleblower-friendly leadership, we believe that this is the right time to launch this specialty law firm,” said Jordan A. Thomas, Chair. “Being a whistleblower has never been more lucrative or dangerous, and our new firm’s mission will be to level the playing field and ensure that SEC whistleblowers don’t have personal or professional regrets.”

The SEC Whistleblower Program offers eligible whistleblowers significant employment protections, monetary awards and the ability to report anonymously. Since issuing its first award in 2012, the program has awarded approximately $1.2 billion to 236 individuals. Information from these whistleblowers has resulted in orders for nearly $5 billion in monetary sanctions, of which more than $1.3 billion has been, or is scheduled to be returned to harmed investors.

Prior to launching the new firm, the founders have been working together at the award-winning whistleblower practice at Labaton Sucharow, which has been profiled by the New York Times and NPR. Their clients have secured precedent-setting whistleblower awards and have launched many of the SEC’s most high-profile cases. To date, their clients have helped the SEC to secure over $1 billion in monetary sanctions and have won the largest single-case SEC whistleblower award in history, more than $83 million. In addition to significant monetary recoveries, among their many landmark cases, they successfully represented the first officer of a public company to win an SEC whistleblower award, the first SEC whistleblower to receive criminal immunity, and the first SEC whistleblower to receive a whistleblower award because his company retaliated against him.

Initially, SEC Whistleblower Advocates PLLC will have offices in Washington D.C. and New York City. For more information about the new law firm and the SEC Whistleblower Program, visit www.secwhistlebloweradvocate.com.