Olivia Choe

Primary Focus & Experience

Ms. Choe’s practice focuses on civil and criminal enforcement actions. She advises global financial institutions, public companies, and asset managers confronting complex enforcement matters, drawing on her nearly 15 years of experience as a government trial attorney, supervisor, and senior enforcement official. Before joining Milbank, she served as the Chief Litigation Counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission, and before that, as a federal criminal prosecutor in the Department of Justice. She has successfully first-chaired multiple civil and criminal federal jury trials and litigated enforcement actions in federal courts across the country.

As Chief Litigation Counsel for the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Ms. Choe oversaw the nationwide litigation and trial program, leading more than 150 trial attorneys throughout the country. She developed and directed litigation strategy across the enforcement docket, advising trial teams in a wide range of high-profile cases involving both individuals and entities. She provided strategic advice and guidance to Commission leadership and hundreds of enforcement staff on complex issues in a broad array of investigations and enforcement actions. During her tenure, Ms. Choe spearheaded the Enforcement Division’s response to many significant legal developments, frequently working with other key divisions and offices throughout the SEC. She also supervised staff responsible for returning nearly $1 billion annually to harmed investors.

Before joining the SEC in 2016, Ms. Choe was an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, where she prosecuted and tried numerous white-collar, violent crime, and child exploitation and human trafficking cases, and argued before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to her government service, Ms. Choe was a white-collar and commercial litigator with an international law firm.

Select Representations:

• Global brokerage and fintech company in CFTC investigation regarding compliance with the impartial access rule governing swap execution facilities.

• Big 4 accounting firm in a PCAOB investigation of allegedly deficient audit committee communications.
• Leading cryptocurrency trading platform and designated CFTC contract market in petitioning financial regulatory agencies regarding the jurisdictional status of certain derivative instruments.
• Pre-IPO trading platform in connection with financial regulatory investigation regarding disclosure and sales practices.
• Successfully conducted a three-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York, prevailing on all claims in the SEC’s first litigated open-market manipulation case, involving charges against a broker-dealer, trading firm and their respective principals for spoofing and cross-product manipulation, in a verdict subsequently affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.*
• First-chaired an insider trading jury trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, which resulted in a favorable Fourth Circuit opinion and settlement.*
• Served as lead trial counsel in a federal court action in the District of New Jersey arising from the hacking of the SEC’s EDGAR system, obtaining multiple favorable settlements.*
• First-chaired a three-week jury trial in the Southern District of Florida in the first prosecution charging extraterritorial conduct under 18 U.S.C. § 1596, prevailing on all counts and resulting in a subsequent favorable opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.*
• Successfully litigated the SEC’s request for approval of a $300 million Fair Fund distribution plan in the District of Columbia over objections of third-party investors.*

*Representation occurred prior to Ms. Choe’s association with Milbank.

Recognition & Accomplishments

Ms. Choe is a two-time recipient of the SEC’s Arthur F. Mathews Award for creativity in applying the federal securities laws for the benefit of investors. She is also a member of the Federal Bar Council and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. Ms. Choe previously served as an adjunct lecturer at George Washington University Law School and is a barrister in the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court.

Ms. Choe began her career as a law clerk to the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr. of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Rya W. Zobel of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an Articles Editor for The Yale Law Journal.