Sean X. McKessy joins Phillips & Cohen as a partner after five years as chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower.
Sean X. McKessy, who served as chief of the Security and Exchange Commission Office of the Whistleblower for five years, has joined Phillips & Cohen LLP as a partner to represent whistleblowers.
McKessy helped build the SEC whistleblower program from its inception under the Dodd-Frank Act into such a success that SEC officials call it a “game-changer” in their enforcement efforts. Under McKessy’s five-year tenure as chief, the SEC levied more than $500 million in sanctions as a result of whistleblower information and assistance and paid out more than $100 million in whistleblower rewards.
“I feel I’ve established that I honor the work whistle-blowers do,” McKessy told the New York Times in an interview. “I am hoping to convince many people who are on the fence witnessing fraud to come forward.”
McKessy’s hire is the latest addition to Phillips & Cohen’s already strong track record of fighting on behalf of Wall Street whistleblowers:
- Phillips & Cohen won for a client an SEC whistleblower award of more than $32 million, the program’s largest award to date.
- Phillips & Cohen attorneys worked closely with the SEC when it was setting up its whistleblower program.
- A Phillips & Cohen client brought a whistleblower lawsuit against numerous Wall Street banks that exposed the widespread practice of “yield-burning” and returned $200 million to the US Treasury.
Below are links to news stories about McKessy’s move to Phillips & Cohen.
- E.C. Whistle-Blower Program’s First Chief Joins Law Firm – The New York Times
- Out of the SEC, Into the Whistleblower Industrial Complex – The Wall Street Journal
- Ex-SEC Whistleblower Chief Lands at Phillips & Cohen – Investment Advisor Magazine
- Former SEC Whistleblower Office Chief Sean McKessy Joins Phillips & Cohen In Washington – Corporate Crime Reporter
For more information, see Phillips & Cohen’s press release.