Bragança Law LLC

Bragança Law is based in Chicago, Illinois but represents clients all over the United States. We defend individuals and businesses in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and other federal and state regulatory investigations and litigation, represent whistleblowers, and handle business disputes. We help clients with:

• Responding to SEC Subpoenas
• Responding to FINRA 8210 Requests
• Responding to State Financial Agency Investigation Demands
• Filing SEC Whistleblower Tips
• Obtaining Corporate Information for Shareholders
• Representing Individuals and Entities in Business Disputes

Bragança Law frequently works in cooperation with other law firms under joint defense agreements when potential conflicts may prevent a single firm from representing both the corporations and individual respondents.

Bragança Law was founded by Lisa Bragança, a graduate from the University of Chicago where she received a B.A. (with honors) and aJ.D. / M.B.A. (Order of the Coif, honors).As a former Branch Chief in the Division of Enforcement of the Chicago Office of the Securities & Exchange Commission, she handled investigations of accounting fraud, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, churning, and unsuitable investments.

Lisa represents individuals and entities involved in SEC and state regulatory investigations.Throughout her career, Lisa has been an advocate for the rights of people with physical, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities. She previously served as counsel in three statewide class actions seeking to compel the State of Illinois to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. She also regularly speaks about elder financial exploitation, securities regulation, recovering investment losses, and cryptocurrency / ICO regulation including:

• Organizer and participant in Concordia University elder financial abuse program
• Guest lecturer on FINRA arbitration hearings for St. John’s Law School Securities Arbitration Clinic
• Faculty for CBA program, Truth Without Proof – getting blockchain transactions into evidence and co-author of article on same topic
• “Cryptocurrencies and Tokens: What are they and who regulates them” co-author PIABA Bar Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (2018), available here: Bragança and Straney, Cryptocurrencies and Tokens, PIABA B.J., Vol 25, No 1 (2018)
• Speaker and moderator at Public Investor Arbitration Bar Association and Chicago Bar Association meetings and programs on cryptocurrency and token regulation, investor protection, FINRA arbitration, and behavioral finance
• Speaker at American Bar Association TechShow 2019 on cryptocurrency and token regulation
• National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) training on elder abuse by financial advisors
• Instructor for Chicago Bar Foundation / NITA trial advocacy and deposition skills programs

Lisa is actively involved in the legal community. She is a former Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Securities Law Committee and is a member of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association (WWCDA), the CBA Financial and Emerging Technology Committee, the Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and is the former president of The PIABA Foundation.

David O'Toole joined Bragança Law in 2022. David earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1984, an M.B.A. with concentrations in industrial relations-labor economics and finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now "Chicago Booth") in 1988, and his J.D. with Honors in 1992 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he worked with the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and the Welfare Rights Project.,

Prior to joining Bragança Law, David O’Toole was a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Midwest Region Senior Staff Attorney for 24 years. He has considerable experience with antitrust and consumer protection litigation. David was the lead attorney on more than thirty investigations and litigation involving violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act and other statutes enforced by the FTC.He has coordinated investigations and litigation jointly with federal and state criminal and civil law enforcement agencies as well as foreign law enforcement agencies. Before joining the FTC, David did white-collar defense and antitrust litigation with firms in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, as well as general commercial litigation.

David has been honored with professional awards that include the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director’s Award. He was the lead writer and editor of the Illinois State Bar Association Antitrust quarterly newsletter. He is a member of the Bar of Illinois and the Trial Bar for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

David has been an adjunct law professor teaching Consumer Protection Law at the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and teaching International Antitrust Law at John Marshall Law School (now the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law). David speaks on consumer protection issues to corporate, trade association, law enforcement, legal, and consumer audiences.