Milbank LLP is proud to announce that partner Antonia M. Apps will become the Director of the New York Regional Office of the US Securities Exchange Commission in January 2023.
As Director of the New York Regional Office of the SEC, Ms. Apps will lead a staff of more than 380 attorneys, accountants, investigators, securities compliance examiners and other personnel involved in the prosecution of enforcement actions and performance of compliance examinations across New York and New Jersey.
“We are very proud that our partner, Antonia Apps, will take on the important role of Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office,” said Milbank Chairman Scott A. Edelman. “Antonia will be joining a long line of legal luminaries, including our own George Canellos, who left the Firm to take the same position in 2009 and then returned to Milbank in 2014 after serving as co-head of Enforcement at the SEC.”
Mr. Edelman added: “Antonia is a valued partner and friend who has contributed significantly to Milbank and its litigation practice during her tenure at the Firm. She has established herself as one of the leading litigators in the country, equally capable of handling investigative matters and complex civil litigation. Her skills as a trial lawyer are well known, as evidenced by her recent election to the American College of Trial Lawyers. We wish her all the best in her new role and commend her for the commitment that she is making to public service in taking on this role. We will miss her greatly as our partner.”
Ms. Apps said: “I am thrilled to lead the SEC’s New York Regional Office as its Director and look forward to the privilege of working alongside the talented staff to advance the agency’s mission of protecting investors and maintaining confidence in the capital markets.”
Ms. Apps is a litigation partner in the New York office of Milbank, where she works on criminal and regulatory matters, and civil litigation. She also teaches a course at Harvard Law School on white collar criminal law and procedure.
Prior to joining Milbank, Ms. Apps served for over seven years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Criminal Division, where she led many of the government’s highest-profile securities fraud and insider trading cases. As a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, she investigated and prosecuted a wide range of financial industry cases involving investment fraud, accounting fraud, broker-dealer fraud, market manipulation, fraud stemming from the sale of RMBS and CDOs, money laundering and obstruction. During her tenure, Ms. Apps prosecuted more than 20 insider trading defendants, and tried numerous securities fraud trials. Ms. Apps also argued several appeals in the Second Circuit, including the landmark case of U.S. v. Newman, for which she was the lead prosecutor at trial and on appeal. In 2014, she received the Executive Office of US Attorneys’ Director’s Award for Superior Performance.
Ms. Apps was recently inducted as a fellow into The American College of Trial Lawyers in February 2022. Fellowship is extended by invitation only and only after careful investigation to experienced trial lawyers of diverse backgrounds who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Ms. Apps is ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA and Legal 500, and Lawdragon has named Ms. Apps in its list of 500 Leading Lawyers in America each year since 2014. Additionally, Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Expert Guide for 2021 recognized Ms. Apps as a leading practitioner for White-Collar Crime. In 2020, Ms. Apps was named in the National Law Journal’s list of “Litigation Trailblazers for 2020,” and in 2019 she was named to Crain’s New York Business’ “Notable Women in Law” list, which recognizes the brightest and boldest legal minds of New York City based on both distinguished careers and exceptional civic and philanthropic activities.
Ms. Apps received her undergraduate degree in law from the University of Sydney (1990) and went on to earn a Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford University (1993) and an LLM from Harvard Law School (1994). She served as a law clerk for the Hon. Fred I. Parker in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and previously as a law clerk to the Hon. Tom W. Waddell, Chief Judge of the Equity Division in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
