Gary Y. Leung Partner

As a former senior officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary brings deep enforcement experience, complex civil litigation, and trial skills to clients navigating government investigations and regulatory matters. In his most recent government role, Gary served as an associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and Regional Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. As co-head of the Los Angeles office’s enforcement program, he supervised approximately 70 investigative attorneys, litigators, and enforcement accountants responsible for investigating and litigating federal securities law violations across Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam. In that role, he collaborated with SEC staff across the agency’s regulatory divisions, its regional offices, and at the SEC’s home office in Washington, D.C. Gary’s investigative and litigation docket covered the full spectrum of the federal securities laws, including matters concerning public company financial reporting and disclosure, securities registration and offering fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, private funds, investment advisers and broker-dealers, anti-money laundering enforcement, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Gary also has significant experience conducting parallel investigations with the Department of Justice, FBI, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, FinCEN, and state and foreign regulators.

During his government service, Gary held other leadership roles in the SEC’s national specialized units and its trial unit. As the Los Angeles office’s Regional Trial Counsel, he supervised all litigated enforcement actions brought by that regional office from filing to jury verdict and led its emergency action practice, securing ex parte temporary restraining orders to halt fraudulent securities offerings, freeze assets, and appoint equity receivers for the benefit of defrauded investors. Gary also served as an Assistant Director in the SEC’s Asset Management Unit, where he supervised teams of investigative attorneys, industry experts, and enforcement accountants focused on misconduct involving investment advisers, investment companies, private funds, retail clients, and third-party professionals involved in the asset management space.

Gary has extensive trial experience. When serving as a senior trial counsel at the SEC, he personally litigated SEC enforcement actions and tried cases to jury verdict and bench decision. Prior to joining the SEC, Gary was a partner at McGuireWoods, where he litigated complex commercial disputes in federal and state courts, representing clients in matters involving patent infringement, trademark counterfeiting, copyright infringement, securities class actions, and breach of contract claims. He began his legal career as a business litigation and appellate attorney in Chicago.