Overview
FINRA arbitration is the primary forum for investor claims against broker-dealers and registered representatives. The arbitration process moves faster than federal court litigation, discovery is more limited, and the panel of arbitrators (often including industry members) brings a different analytical frame than a federal judge. Defending a FINRA arbitration effectively requires counsel who understands the procedural rules, the substantive securities law, and the dynamics of arbitration panel selection and management.
Michael Garcia's securities litigation background includes FINRA arbitration defense and representation of financial services clients in regulatory matters, developed during his decade at White & Case. The firm's SEC enforcement experience, with Alejandro Soto having litigated securities cases as an SEC trial attorney, allows the firm to defend FINRA matters with full awareness of parallel regulatory exposure.
The firm also selectively represents investors as claimants, including the recovery of a $20 million inheritance lost to investment-adviser fraud. Experience building claimant cases sharpens the defense work: counsel who has assembled those claims knows where they fail.
Our Approach
FINRA arbitration defense strategy must account simultaneously for the arbitration itself and any parallel FINRA regulatory investigation. Statements and documents produced in arbitration are available to FINRA regulators; arbitration strategy must be calibrated accordingly. The expungement of meritless customer complaints from a registered representative's CRD record is a separate proceeding that requires its own strategy and preparation.
