Tom Bednar — Counsel, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen Hamilton LLP

Tom Bednar
Counsel, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Tom Bednar’s practice focuses on securities enforcement and litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and litigation. With over a decade of government experience, Tom is a veteran litigator with an extensive history of leading enforcement litigation for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. From 2014 through 2021, Tom served as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel and Supervisory Trial Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement Trial Unit, where he provided principal strategy on litigation risk, settlement, and charging decisions. He supervised securities enforcement litigation in federal court and administrative actions, particularly in connection with accounting and issuer disclosure fraud, crypto and cyber cases, cases involving structured products and other complex financial products and trading strategies, and cases involving regulated entities such as broker-dealers, investment advisers, and credit rating agencies. Tom regularly partnered on investigations and litigation with specialist investigative units, including the Complex Financial Instruments Unit, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit, and the Cyber Unit.

Prior to joining the SEC, Tom was a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. During his five-year tenure as Assistant U.S. Attorney, he tried over 40 cases to verdict and investigated numerous offenses, including complex white collar and national security cases. 

Before his time in government, Tom worked as a litigation associate at another prominent firm in Washington, D.C.