Casselle A.E. Smith

Casselle represents public and private companies in sensitive, high-stakes internal and regulatory investigations and enforcement matters across a broad spectrum of commercial enterprises and industries – including financial services, energy, and health sciences, with a particular focus on securities matters.

A significant part of her practice involves representing public companies and senior executives in SEC investigations — including recent matters involving cybersecurity intrusions, SPAC mergers, IPO practices, and off-channel communications. She also routinely defends broker-dealers and investment advisers across all aspects of their operations, from routine regulatory exams to targeted investigations involving customer harm.

Her practice extends across the full range of corporate exposure: from discrete internal matters involving sensitive employee allegations to bet-the-company investigations implicating officers, directors, and entire business divisions facing scrutiny from the SEC, DOJ, FINRA, FERC, and state regulators.

Beyond defending clients in front of regulators, Casselle advises boards and audit committees on internal investigations, helps companies develop remediation plans, and strengthens compliance programs to reduce future exposure.

She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she served as president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, one of the law school’s three historic honors societies and the nation’s oldest student-run legal services center. Before law school, she served as an investigator for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia — experience that sharpened her investigative instincts and commitment to advocacy.

SEC Enforcement Actions – Public Companies

• Defending the former CEO of a publicly traded biotech company in connection with an SEC enforcement action in the District of Massachusetts involving Rule 10b-5 and Section 17(a) claims of securities fraud.
• Defended a multinational IT and consulting services provider in a years-long SEC investigation involving allegations of fraud, false filings, and disclosure control violations in connection with the SolarWinds cyberattack and related cybersecurity incidents reportedly perpetrated by threat actors working at the direction of the Russian Federation.
• Represented a provider of vehicle electrification solutions for North American commercial fleets in an SEC investigation alleging violations of certain antifraud, proxy, and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws related to its SPAC merger.
• Represented a multinational investment bank in connection with an SEC probe into initial public offering syndicate practices.
• Represented a multinational digital media company in connection with an SEC investigation of SPAC merger.

Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers

• Routinely represents senior executives, traders, financial advisors, and other associated persons in connection with enforcement actions brought by FINRA, SEC, and state securities regulators — involving issues such as insider trading, unauthorized use of off-channel communications, registration issues, and sales practice violations.
• Defended a major clearing firm in a multiyear investigation brought by FINRA’s Office of Market Regulation concerning its historic and ongoing failure to properly handle options orders placed on behalf of its institutional and retail clients.
• Defended a national broker-dealer in connection with FINRA’s investigation of alleged failures by the firm to adopt and implement sufficient account maintenance and estate processing procedures – implicating (among other things) the firm’s ability to detect and prevent elder abuse and exploitation.

Internal Investigations

• Conducted a high-speed internal investigation on behalf of the audit committee of a multinational media company involving credible allegations of internal audit and compliance failures, securities fraud, and self-dealing spanning several years and implicating both the chief executive officer and the chairman of the board.
• Conducted an internal investigation on behalf of a large financial institutioninvolving concerns of fraud and embezzlement by its chief information officer.
• Conducted an internal investigation on behalf of a national financial advisory firm to assess and address issues stemming from the firm’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty and failure to monitor its employee retirement plan.

DOJ Matters

• Represented a publicly traded media company in connection with parallel investigations by the SEC and DOJ involving criminal fraud allegations and violations of other federal securities laws in the Eastern District of New York.
• Secured a favorable outcome for a mineral ore processing company and its senior executivein connection with a criminal tax fraud case brought by the DOJ in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
• Representing a publicly traded mortgage REIT in connection with a DOJ investigation involving criminal fraud allegations in the Northern District of Illinois.
• Defended an independent power marketer and its CEO in connection with a DOJ investigation stemming from an alleged fraud and involving potential obstruction of justice charges in the District of Columbia.

Energy Industry Matters

• Defended an energy trading firm in connection with a FERC enforcement action involving alleged violations of FERC’s Anti-Manipulation Rule for certain up-to-congestion (UTC) trading activity in PJM’s Day-Ahead Market.
• Conducted internal investigation on behalf of a family office to assess and address concerns of unlawful trading activity in certain wholesale electricity markets.
• Defended a leading owner and operator of residential solar systems in connection with a slate of separate, but related, regulatory investigations into consumer protection issues.

• Chambers USA: Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, North Carolina, “Up & Coming” (2025-2026)
• Best Lawyers in America®: Ones to Watch: Corporate Governance and Compliance Law (2024-2025), Criminal Defense: White Collar (2021-2025), Government Relations Practice (2022)
• Honors, Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll, D.C. Access to Justice Commission and the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center (2024)
• Lawyers of Color Hot List, 2022
• National Black Lawyers: Top 40 Under 40, 2022
• Dean’s Scholar Prize, Harvard Law School, Spring 2010
• Certificate for Pro Bono Service, Harvard Law School 2010